The Fanno Creek Trail will travel 15 miles from the Willamette River in Southwest Portland through Beaverton and Tigard to the Tualatin River, at its confluence with Fanno Creek. As of summer 2012, the project was about half complete.
In particular, the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District seeks to bridge the gap in the Fanno Creek Trail across busy traffic at Southwest Hall Boulevard. Initial plans of a tunnel or bridge were discarded, however, when the costs proved to be prohibitive. In June 2012, the park district board unanimously approved the decision to implement a “mid-block crossing” that adds a crosswalk signal, activated by pedestrians and cyclists, in coordination with vehicular signals. Estimated to cost around $400 000, the installation would be the first of its kind in the district and could fill one of the last gaps in the Fanno Creek Trail system by 2013.
A bridge has not yet been completely ruled out. The work to draft preliminary designs for a $3.3 million wooden bridge is set to begin, paid for by a grant from Metro, the regional government. Depending on state funding received and the effectiveness of the mid-block crossing, the bridge over Hall Boulevard could be built by 2015.
To learn more, visit the Fanno Creek Greenway Trail website here, or contact Kelly Skelton (503) 235-5881.
Graphic by Dan Aguayo/The Oregonian
