Photo courtesy of Jonathan Maus/BikePortland

It’s official.  The Waud Bluff Trail is ready for wheels, feet, families, workers squirrels…you name it.  Ask Lenny Anderson, Executive Director of the Swan Island Business Association, founder of the Swan Island TMA and charter board member of npGreenway, “Why a Waud Bluff Trail?” and this is what you’ll get:

“Over 3,000 people work within five minutes of the lower trail head on Swan Island…Western Star Truck Plant, the UPS hub, US Coast Guard, Navy and Marines. Access to those jobs just got a lot better via transit (TriMet 44), on foot for those you live nearby and by bike.

I am sure when I lug my 50lb rig up the stairs for the first time I’ll bellyache like a lot of you, but I’m confident that the men and women who are building trucks, sorting boxes and serving in the US armed forces can hack it (as wil the rest of us with a little practice). It was built for them and without the compelling testimony from UPS, the US Coast Guard and adidas, the money would have gone elsewhere!  The old path had been heavily used, was funky at top and bottom and had an open rail crossing where UPRR occasionally parked trains making the path unsafe. It deserved an upgrade.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Maus/BikePortland

And why are we trying to get folks to Swan Island jobs without their cars? Since 2000, the Swan Island TMA, a project of the SI Business Association, has worked hard to expand the commute options for Swan Islanders for all the stock reasons, but most of all so that parts, products and people that need to move by motor vehicle can get in and out of the area without delay.  It’s a low cost strategy and it works. Swan Island is about to take off in a big way and I’m convinced we’ll have 15,000 people working in traded sector jobs by the end of the decade.

Now for those of you who just want to go for a ride, head down the new Waud Bluff Trail, but slowly! It’s a beautiful stretch of landscape showcasing an oak and madrone habitat with lots of bird life, the occasional deer and no doubt a few coyotes. Please stay on the Trail; shortcuts will tear up the fragile bluff (a prominent remnant of the Missoula Floods).

On weekends, traffic on the Island is light, making Basin Avenue doable even for the cautious. Once you hit the Swan Island Lagoon be sure to check out the viewpoint to see images of the original Island, then cut over to Lagoon Avenue. Head for the river via the choicest section of the Willamette Greenway Trail at N Ballast Avenue.  Facing you, a 12′ sidewalk/trail on the south side of Channel will take you contraflow along N. Channel to a small parking lot. Here you can continue down Channel on new sidewalk (“The Captain’s Walk,” named in honor of Capt. R. Head who was struck and killed while walking here in the 90′s while he waited for his ship to be repaired in the shipyard) to the Portland Shipyards. Or head for the River where a full mile of riverside trail and unbeatable views await.

Use the parking access road to circumvent the brick building (Daimler Corp 8).  Now you are back on the Willamette Greenway Trail and heading for the Big Pipe Pump Station…(paid for with water/sewer fees and now the Willamette is no longer the sewer it once was whenever it rained a bit).

Sorry about the dead end at the Ash Grove Cement Dock, but if you glance over the fence toward the UPRR yard, you will see the Ash Grove Cement Road…which is a whole other story…

Now what? Back to the light at McDonalds, use the pedestrian signal (yes we need a bike signal here) to cross Going Street over to the new flasher assisted crosswalk to the north side of Basin Avenue. The narrow sidewalk up the north side of Going Street widens at the railroad viaduct, narrows again under the Greeley Avenue overpass, then widens again to 10′ at the newly completed Going to the River Trail up to the bike/pedestrian overpass at Concord. *Note the big bio-swale that will capture nearly half a million gallons of polluted storm water – that’s over 14,000 square feet of runoff off Going Street!

Come again!”

Read Jonathan Maus’  BikePortland coverage of the new trail…

As you may have heard, Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) has been working very hard in recent months with npGreenway to determine a feasible alignment for the future bike and pedestrian trail that will extend from the East Bank Esplanade to Kelley Point Park in St. John’s.

Before they close in on the final stretch, PP&R invites those interested from the community to weigh in on their most recent alignment proposal.  On January 9th, PP&R and npGreenway will host an Open House to solicit feedback and provide the latest on the proposal.  See below for details…

If you have leftover tickets that look like these, or other old tickets without a shiny foil strip, be sure to use or exchange them by December 31, 2012.

When the ball drops on December 31, you may as well use your old TriMet tickets for confetti because time will have run out to exchange them for valid tickets. Before singing Auld Lang Syne to 2012, the TriMet Trio sang a tune to help spread the word.

December 31 is the last day you can exchange your unused 1- and 2-Zone tickets (and any non-foil tickets)!

*Find out more

These are the final days for using old TriMet tickets – the non-foil, skinny plus 1- and 2-zone tickets. Monday is the very last day for exchanges and upgrades. TriMet has been getting the word out through press releases, Facebook, ads—even a seasonal song…

Content & photos courtesy of TriMet

Ride down, chow down! The very generous folks at TILT have offered up complimentary coffee and breakfast to anyone who rides their bike to work this THURSDAY.  

If ever there were a day to try bike commuting, you might consider this one.  Just be sure to stop by TILT before heading to work…

Date/Time: Thursday, September 20, 7-9am

Location: 3449 N Anchor Street

http://tiltitup.com/

Join us for a day of events to celebrate bike/pedestrian improvements on Swan Island!

Bikers Breakfast at TILT: Bike in and enjoy complementary coffee and breakfast at SwanIsland’s newest eatery; 7-9am, 3449 N. Anchor Street.

Dedication of “The Captain’s Walk”: Join us to dedicate the new Channel Avenue sidewalk to the Shipyards in honor of Captain R. Head, Master of the Olendorff, who was killed while walking along N. Channel Avenue; 11am-1pm, McCarthy Park parking lot between N Ballast & Commerce. *Look for tent and banners. Light snacks and refreshments. Followed by…

Celebration and Grand Opening of “River to Lagoon Trail” (Led bike/walk tours): Take an easy stroll or bike ride to the Lagoon, once the main channel of the Willamette River; 11am-1pm.

Industry & Art: Celebrating the worker: Just down “The Captain’s Walk” at Vigor Industrial Shipyard; Noon to 6pm, 5555 N. Channel Avenue. Free with $5 suggested donation.

The Swan Island TMA invites you to the “Destination Swan Island”  launch party, this coming Wednesday, May 9, 10 am to 2 pm. Help us celebrate the $5 million in bike/pedestrian/transit access improvements coming to Swan Island this year!

Learn about the Waud Bluff Trail and the Going to the River sidewalk/trail improvements. Guided rides and walks at noon.

Bring your bike for complementary bike tune-ups (courtesy of the Green Garage), bike seat covers (courtesy of the TMA) and more!

Get the latest on Active Transportation options for employees from city bureaus, regional agencies and non-profits, hear prominent speakers from Cycle Oregon, Alta Planning and the BTA and check out your carshare options: car2go, Zipcar and GetAround.

Walk, bike, grab an 85 Swan Island bus or drive on over to N. Anchor & Channel (easy parking across the street at the former Office Max location) to Daimler Trucks North America, Corp 1, 4747 N. Channel next Wednesday, May 9th…You can’t miss the tents! *Directions attached.

Enjoy fine music, food (Lunch will start at Noon), and the chance win a $50 REI gift card!

Hope to see you there–come early!

For more information regarding the infrastructure improvements along Going Street and on Swan Island as part of the City of Portland “Going to the River” project, click HERE.

Look outside! It’s no longer dismal out! In fact, this past week has been downright glorious biking weather (can the air possibly get any fresher?!), so how about brushing up on some BIKE TIPS (How-to Videos & Bike Resources) and reading on about how National Bike Month got started in the first place?

With weeks left in National Bike to Work Month this May, let us backtrack a bit to provide you the appropriate historical context:

THE HISTORY OF BIKE MONTH

For fifty-five years, National Bike Month has been the perfect time for new or returning riders to get back on the saddle and ride their bike to work. Originally the Cycle Trade Association called the month American Bike Month but in 1956 it evolved to Bike Month. Along with the name change, Bike Month became more about promoting cycling and safe bicycling, not just selling bicycles.

BIKING HISTORY DATES

1880 League of American Wheelman founded
1888 First pneumatic tires
1890 Good Roads Movement
1896 Buffalo soldiers test bicycle for military use in mountainous terrain
1899 Major Taylor wins 1-mile sprint world championship
1902 First 3-speed gear hub
1903 First Tour de France
1905 Office of Public Roads created
1920 Derailleurs make an appearance
1930 Quick release hub invented
1950s Multie-speed components mastered
1956 League designates May as National Bike Month
1960s 10-speed becomes available to general public
1970 Bicycle helmet safety standard introduced
1972 Bicycles outsell cars in US (13 million to 11 million)
1974 Adventure Cycling Association founded as Bikecentennial
1976 Mountain Biking as a sport is born
1984 Women cyclists compete for first time in Olympics
1986 Greg LeMond becomes first American to win Tour de France
1988 International Mountain Biking Association founded
1991 Congress passes ISTEA 1991
1991 Congressional Bike Caucus is formed
1996 Bikes Belong Coalition founded
1997 First Walk to School Day
1998Congress passes TEA-21
1999 Lance Armstrong wins 1st Tour de France
2000 First federal Safe Routes to Schools grant
2001 America Bikes Founded
2002 Senate Bike Caucus is formed
2005 Bicyclists win and achieve … Complete Streets, Safe Routes to School, Fair Share for Safety, Bike Commuting Tax Benefit, etc.

Happily, the days are getting longer so many of us no longer are returning from work in the pitch dark.  However, many of us either commuters heading to work in low light or are pedestrians during the evening hours throughout the week.  Hence, visibility issues should remain a consideration if you’re walking in the early morning or evening hours.

Our friends at the Westside Transportation Alliance created a great video that demonstrates a motorist’s visibility perspective of pedestrians and some precautions that pedestrians can increase visibility on the road.

Sure, we all know about the bus, the bike, the carpool…but how often do we think of our own feet as the best (if not most accessible) way to get around?

National Walk to Work Day is held the first Friday of April in the USA, a tradition that began in 2004. For more information about the annual national event, I’d invite you to check out this link.

2012 will be the first full year in Portland’s history that we are not using the Willamette River as a default sewer. Completing the CSO Program last month should dramatically alter the way Portlanders view our river and interact with it.

summer but it requires a lot of rain to make that happen: nearly 1.2 inches in 24 hours for the river and 2.5 inches in 24 hours for the slough. The program reduced annual CSO volume to the Columbia Slough by 99% and to the Willamette River by 94%.

Work started on the CSO Cornerstone Projects in 1994 to remove as much stormwater runoff as possible from combined sewers.  This allowed engineers to design smaller, less expensive facilities to collect and convey combined sewage. Today the stream diversion, sewer separation, sump installation and downspout disconnection projects remove an average of 2.2-billion gallons of stormwater per year from the combined sewer system. Downspout disconnections alone remove an average of 1.2-billion gallons from the system annually.

Construction of larger projects began in 1996 with the Columbia Slough Big Pipe, a 3.5-mile long conduit ranging in diameter from six to 12 feet. The city completed the pipeline and projects to expand capacity at the city’s sewage treatment plant in 2000. Construction began on West Side CSO projects in 2002. They included the 3.5-mile long, 14-foot diameter West Side Big Pipe, the Swan Island CSO Pump Station, the Peninsular Force Main and the Southwest Parallel Interceptor. The city activated the West Side Big Pipe in 2006 to control CSO outfalls on the west side of the Willamette River. Also in 2006, the city broke ground on the East Side CSO Big Pipe Project, the largest public works project in Portland history. In fall 2011, the city activated the six-mile long, 22-foot diameter tunnel and completed work on the Balch Consolidation Conduit and the Sellwood CSO Pump Station to complete CSO construction.

Over 20 years, the CSO program has cost Portland sewer ratepayers an estimated $1.4-billion. That estimate includes the costs of more than 300 CSO construction projects since 1994.

2012 will be exciting and a year of even more successes. We’ll continue to invest in green infrastructure. We’ll make progress in maintaining and improving our aging infrastructure (30 % of our collection system is over 80 years old). We’ll continue our work to restore the health of our urban watersheds.

If you have not already seen the new CSO program video you can view it at http://www.portlandonline.com/bes/index.cfm?c=31030&a=375594.

-Photo courtesy of Oregonlive
-Content courtesy of BES

Questions? Contact Debbie Caselton 
Community Relations
City of Portland | Environmental Services
211 SE Caruthers Suite 200
Portland, Oregon 97214
503-823-2831
503-823-2350 fax
Debbie.Caselton@portlandoregon.gov