Portland Tomorrow

Oregon Rail Heritage Center Construction

The Oregon Rail Heritage Center is taking shape near OMSI.

The project broke ground on October 21, 2011, and the framing was completed by May 25 of this year. It is scheduled for completion later this summer.

Three locomotives and one car will be on display within the facility.

 

Renderings:

Photos from 6-10-2012:

Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge Construction

The Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge, formerly known as the 'Caruthers Bridge' or 'Caruthers Crossing,' is slated to open Fall 2015.

The new bridge will serve pedestrians and cyclists, the new Max Orange Line (Portland to Milwaukie), and the Streetcar Loop.

Most of the Streetcar Loop will open in September of 2012 with a terminus near OMSI. The 'Loop' will be completed when the new bridge opens three years later.

Read more at Trimet's Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge Construction Page.

 

Photos from 6-10-2012:

 

This staging area is adjacent to OMSI to the south:

Sellwood Bridge Construction

The aging and decrepit Sellwood Bridge is being replaced. Construction on the new bridge officially began on December 16, 2011 with a groundbreaking ceremony at Sellwood Riverfront Park.

The current phase of the project involves contruction of temporary piers to the north of the existing bridge. The existing truss spans will be slid onto these temporary piers, creating a 'shoofly' detour bridge.

Yes, they are moving the entire current Sellwood Bridge (minus the piers) over a bit to clear the area for construction of the new bridge. The old bridge in its new location will be open to traffic while the new bridge is being built.

Larry Gescher of General Contractor Slayden Construction explains:

 

 

You can find more information about the Sellwood Bridge project at www.sellwoodbridge.org.

 

Photos from 6-10-2012:

Cascadian Farm Celebrates Earth Day

...with a layer of plastic and an extra cardboard sleeve across the bottom. Fred Meyer, 82nd and Foster.

Street Work in St Johns - Follow-up

It turns out that that unusual-looking intersection element is a 'truck corner.' It's a sort of compromise between street and pedestrian space, for the benefit of large trucks.

The concrete beyond the curb functions as a sidewalk to pedestrians and cars, but can be used as part of the street by large trucks making the tight turn.

It's explained pretty well in this document from the Portland Bureau of Transportation:

Feb 5, '08 Open House presentation (pdf) (link goes directly to relevant page)

 

This is all part of the St Johns Truck Strategy (pdf). From this page at the Portland Bureau of Transportation:

Adopted by City Council in 2001, the goal of the St Johns Truck Strategy is to reduce or eliminate conflicts between freight movement and neighborhood livability within theSt JohnsTownCenter. 

...

The basic challenge is to provide a transportation system inSt Johnsthat supports efficient  freight access connections between theSt JohnsBridge, Rivergate and other nearby industrial districts, while at the same time supporting the revitalization of theSt JohnsTownCenter.

 

Street Work in St Johns

An unusual new street corner configuration emerged recently in St. Johns. The benefits of this design are not immediately apparent to me.

Portland Tomorrow is Live

This is Portland Tomorrow, a blog about Portland, Oregon and things that may be of interest to its residents.

We'll be talking about big infrastructure projects, transportation, food, recycling, and more.