Aaron has a nice piece on his blog, Transportation Innovations, about the current state of the Sellwood Bridge process.
Which is a nice segue into the next two meetings in the process:
On Monday, November 6 the project’s Community Task Force will meet from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Sellwood Baptist Church, 1104 SE Spokane St. The task force includes 20 citizens representing various groups interested in the project. The meeting agenda includes a report on the results of a recent open house and public survey, recommendation of a purpose and need statement for the project, and discussion of the criteria that will be used to evaluate different bridge alternatives in 2007.
On Thursday, November 9 the project’s Policy Advisory Group will meet from noon until 2:00 pm in Room 635 of the Multnomah Building, 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd. The group includes elected and appointed officials from jurisdictions impacted by the project. The agenda includes a presentation on development of the project’s purpose and need statement, a review of public input and possible adoption of the statement. The purpose and need statement is a federal requirement for the project.
One response to “More Sellwood Meetings”
Aaron says that if fed funding is sought some creative possibilities will open. We do hope that the Sellwood Bridge remains at two lanes, but I liked the suggestion for a streetcar track, which could be a critical link if the LO Streetcar gets stalled. The bottom line is that we don’t want Tacoma St. as a faceless four lane highway. As far as bicyclist and pedestrians I keep asking why a platform hung off the side-ala Steel Bridge- wouldn’t be a solution.
What should not get overlooked is reconstruction of the entire west side intersection. There are a lot of possibilities here: to improve traffic flow over the present configuration, provide an important component to a commuter rail system, to keep the embankment from sliding further. This should all be thought out and done in a coordinated plan so that the west end doesn’t produce trouble in the future. I have started to wonder if Hwy 43 might even have some double decking in this particular area, or at least elevated on-ramps to the bridge. Something to solve the traffic jam problem.
Maybe the present Bridge should be closed. This would force Clackamas County residents to face up to the inadequacy of its own infrastructure. This is a popular complaint at our neighborhood meetings–Clackams County shamelessly dumps their commuters in our neighborhood.
Ron Swaren
Board member of SMILE