South Waterfront is officially breaking ground on a big new project today: A 700-foot bike and pedestrian bridge connecting South Waterfront and Lair Hill over the I-5 freeway.
Unlike the bike and pedestrian bridges that cross I-5 throughout North Portland (can I just take a moment to note the irony of the Failing Pedestrian Bridge?), the Gibbs Street Bridge will be good looking. Here’s a rendering from the project web site:
Here is a video of what the bridge would look like if you were a human who could fly:
The bridge is undeniably an important link over I-5. Currently, the freeway maroons South Waterfront from the surrounding neighborhoods and cuts off Lair Hill from the water. The city projects that 3,000-4,000 people will walk and bike across the bridge daily by 2035. It’s just the sort of connection for South Waterfront to get exactly what it needs to become an actual neighborhood—more people.
And then, of course, there’s the pricetag. The 700-foot bridge is being built to the tune of $12.6 million (that’s $18,000 per foot), with the vast majority ($10 million) coming from the federal government. The remainder is covered by a mix of city transportation dollars and the urban renewal fund. The construction was delayed for about a year after early bids for building the bridge made it clear that the project would be much more expensive than the $7 million the city projected. Just the cost of trying to fix neighborhoods severed by freeways.
No way this thing stays on budget. I think it’s a great idea, as anything to help transform SoWat from the ghost town that it is now to at least something resembling a neighborhood is probably worth the investment, but $12 mill ain’t happening.
3,000 to 4,000 trips a day, even 25 years from now, also seems like a longshot, but here’s hoping.
Working in Lair Hill, this will be nice for, well, not much. Yes, this neighborhood was bled dry by I-5 and Barbur, so there are absolutely no lunch options, etc., in the area. But how will any of that improve by connecting us to SoWa?
Actually, it’s only a small part of the cost of subsidizing the creation of a neighborhood from a brownfield. In other words, it’s more public subsidy to local condo developers, who have so far not done so well selling their new chi-chi neighborhood.
Maybe some day South Waterfront will be a success, and be a net contributor to the revenue of the city. Meanwhile, we just keep pouring sand down the hole.
South Waterfront won’t be livable until they at least get a grocery store.
Call me when they have a snazzy letterpressed poster in which the bridge is depicted as a snake.
As a little kid growing up in Portland, I always saw the sign over the freeway for the Failing Pedestrian bridge, and just assumed it was for the handicapped.
I’d also like to give props to Beggar’s Tick Park. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
Josiah Failing was a strong supporter of early public schools in Portland, so at least they had the common sense not to name a school after him.
If I were in charge of the project, it would have been located one block south so we could call it the Moody Pedestrian Bridge.
Wait, where do they get the 3-4k assumption? Do normal sidewalks even get that many trips in a day?
I believe this was the consolation prize to South Portland for running the tram over their heads.
@ Oregometry, I would have relocated a bit north to the Mason Pedestrian Bridge, which could only be used on 3/3/2033 (and even then not by women and/or Catholics).
Next time I blow a bunch of money on something frivolous, I’m just going to tell my wife I’m trying to stimulate the economy.
I’d say 3-4,000 people in 2035 is a modest estimate. The City, of course, wants it to help out the glassy housing at South Waterfront but the real traffic is, and will continue to be, to OHSU.
OHSU is a multi billion dollar university with 16,000+ paid workers, 6% of whom already walk. The price tag, to me, seems proportionate to what users contribute in payroll taxes and public services.
(Note: I work Multimodal Transportation for OHSU, which may make me a geek for this kind of project but has placed me under no obligation to endorse it. I’ll happily chide the City on other matters.)
@John Landolfe, you’re saying that nearly 1000 people currently walk to OHSU? From where?
I used to walk to OHSU when I lived nearby. Lots of employee within walking distance or walking distance of one of the buses to there.
As a person living in downtown with no personal transportation, I bet you $12.6 million I will never walk on this bridge. Too bad the federal government couldn’t be giving that kind of money to, oh I don’t know, the PPSD… Or at least the cops or something if they wanted to keep it semi-useless.
@AMA That’s the best estimate from the last major survey (2009) asking people what their primary mode to work is. I don’t have the data at the moment on where they’re coming from. It’s about a 2 mile walk from downtown either uphill or to the Tram.
A lot of people walk a lot of places. We don’t build them all $12.6 million bridges. I walk quite a bit. Where is my bridge?
Look, people, most of the money is coming from the feds, who would just spend it on lawn-mowing at some military complex anyway. Let’s get the bridge built, and the new one across the Willamette too. The OMSI to OHSU fun runs alone will almost be worth the cost.
Seriously, we do need a bridge there, now that South Waterfront is being developed. I’m sorry it’ll cost so much, but a rope suspension bridge probably ain’t gonna cut it.
@Todd
You realize where money from the feds comes from, don’t you?
@Chuck: Sure I do. It’s printed in facilities in Washington D.C. and Fort Worth, Texas.
I get your point. But OHSU pays taxes, and so do the citizens of the city, and I’d rather spend this money on infrastructure than on weapons systems, foreign wars, or farm subsidies.
Wow if they built this first Portland would not have needed that tram boondoggle.
This will be the best skateboard park ever. Thank you new transport skater tzar.
Because if we’ve learned anything, it’s that pedestrian infrastructure to OHSU always stays on budget and is always used as much as planned.
@Graham They won’t get a grocery store until people live there.
@Andy (not the one who lives in his parents’ basement in Beaverton): If you build a Trader Joe’s, they will come.