Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge | Complete

[CUclimber]

I love the design of this bridge, and I agree on the comments about it providing a great first impression of Portland for drivers coming north on I-5.

It's just a shame that I'm probably going to be moving out of the Lair Hill neighborhood this summer after living there for 4 years. I would have loved to have this right down the street from my apartment.

[cronked]

I went to the open house. They had a bunch of large images of the bridge along with detailed information. They had a computer generated animated video running on a laptop of what it might look like to cross the bridge. It was cool. Most of the information is already out there but I did learn a few things. What looks like a water feature behind the elevator is actually a place that collects the rain water which lands on the bridge. What also looks like chain linked fencing is actually something much nicer looking. They had a sample of it there. The staff was very helpful and answered a lot of my questions. Not only did they do a great job in designing this bridge but they did a great job in getting the publics comments and making information available.

Here is a picture of that water section I was talking about. I would imagine that there would be times of the year when this would not have water in it? I'm a little concerned about having standing water there. I specifically asked if there was a pump system to move the water back to the top to keep it moving and they said no.

[mmeade]

The onsite rainwater feature is becoming more popular now that the City of Portland is not allowing new connections to the storm water system. When all rainwater has to be infiltrated on site, it can become a large part of the program. The feature will likely only be this full in the largest of storms. Just guessing, but I would assume that it is designed to create a waterfall with all of the rainwater from the bridge, and only infiltrate in the lowest basins to prevent destabilizing the hillside. The only problem with these features is that they are at their most attractive when you least want to be there.