Public Input Wanted On Bridge Design Concepts

WILSONVILLE, OR — The city will present five design proposals for the forthcoming French Prairie Bike-Ped-Emergency Bridge at an open house in Wilsonville later this month. To help inform the city's decision going forward, the public is invited to attend the event and/or provide comments online before Oct. 30.

The open house at City Hall, 29799 S.W. Town Center Loop E, will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 18. The online open house will open for community feedback on Oct. 11.

The multi-purpose bridge has gone through varying stages of development since 2016, though the need for a new Willamette River-crossing bicycle and pedestrian bridge has been discussed since at least 1993.

Upon its completion, the bridge will reportedly satisfy three major wants noted by city and project officials:

• Improve routes and responses for emergency services providers;
  
• Help enhance opportunities for a healthy Wilsonville community and the greater Portland metro region; and
  
• Offer a potential boost to Wilsonville's tourism economy.

According to Wilsonville city officials, the French Prairie Bridge will provide an alternate route for emergency services when travel across the Interstate-5 bridge at Wilsonville isn't a viable option. Additionally, the bridge will connect 1,000 miles of multi-use trails spread across the three counties that make up the metro area to the 134-mile Willamette Valley scenic bikeway to Eugene.

Lastly, by connecting those scenic trails at Wilsonville the city invites an increase to tourism spending by cyclists traveling through or needing to stay in the area.

The city already determined where the bridge will ultimately go, so this next step takes the project further by pegging down the type of bridge the city will see constructed. The last step will be to determine costs for constructing the bridge as well as figuring out how the project will be funded.

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Development of the bridge so far has been funded by the city, Clackamas County, Metro, and the Oregon Department of Transportation. Once the design phase is complete, the city will be able to explore future funding options to complete the project.

Following the public comment period, the Clackamas Board of County Commissioners and Wilsonville City Council in January 2019 will reportedly select two of the bridge designs for further study.

To stay up to speed with all the latest on this project, visit FrenchPrairieBridgeProject.org, call Project Manager Zach Weigel at 503-570-1565, or email weigel@ci.wilsonville.or.us.

Images via City of Wilsonville, Shutterstock