FRENCH PRAIRIE TASK FORCE TO MEET ON DECEMBER 5
The French Prairie Bridge Task Force, a 21-member stakeholder group representing a wide range of values and interests, will meet December 5 at 6 pm to review initial design concepts for the proposed French Prairie Bike-Ped-Emergency Bridge across the Willamette River. The Task Force is expected to recommend the top two preferred bridge designs to be moved ahead for further study to the Wilsonville City Council.
French Prairie Bridge Project
Task Force Meeting
Wed., December 5, 6-9 pm
Wilsonville City Hall
29799 SW Town Center Loop E
At the Task Force Meeting, the project team will provide an overview of the five bridge types under consideration and a summary of input received from the Technical Advisory Committee and public feedback from the open house events.
View French Prairie Bridge Designs
All Task Force meetings are open to the public. Interested community members are welcome to attend and listen to Task Force deliberation. A time for public comment is included on the agenda. Additional project documents can be found at the project website library at http://frenchprairiebridgeproject.org/resources/.
PREFERRED BRIDGE LOCATION
The five bridge types under consideration are designed specific to the preferred bridge location unanimously recommended by the Task Force and approved by the Wilsonville City Council and Clackamas County Board of Commissioners earlier this year. North of the river, the alignment connects to the west shoulder of SW Boones Ferry Road in Boones Ferry Park. The south end of the bridge connects to NE Butteville Road opposite the Clackamas County Boones Ferry Boat Launch parking lot.
The French Prairie Bridge preferred bridge location “Alignment W1”.
REGIONAL TRAIL CONNECTION
Connecting the 1000 miles of multi-use trails in the three county Portland region to the 134-mile Willamette Valley scenic bikeway to Eugene relies on a Willamette River crossing at Wilsonville. The French Prairie Bridge fills this critical gap, while providing local and regional active transportation and recreation opportunities in the northern portion of the Willamette Valley, known as the French Prairie region.
EMERGENCY ACCESS
The frequently congested I-5 Boone Bridge carries over 120,000 vehicles every day—nearly a third of which are large trucks—and provides cyclists and pedestrians with no separation from traffic.
In instances where there is an accident or other traffic disruption, back-ups on I-5 can impact emergency response time and secondary responders working to clear the road can have difficulty getting to the accident site. The proposed French Prairie Bridge would provide both a safe route for cyclists and pedestrians to cross the Willamette River and provide an I-5 incident response option for emergency responders.
PROJECT STATUS
The currently funded French Prairie Bridge Project led by the City of Wilsonville in partnership with Clackamas County, Metro, and the Oregon Department of Transportation aims to address the following questions:
Where are the preferred landing points for the bridge? (complete)
What is the preferred bridge type?
What is the estimated cost of the preferred bridge and how might its construction be funded?
At the completion of this preliminary design project, the City of Wilsonville and regional partners will have the information needed to determine whether to pursue final design and construction of the French Prairie Bridge.
NEXT STEPS
In January 2019, the Wilsonville City Council will select two of the bridge designs for further study after assessing public feedback and the recommendation of the project Task Force. The two advance bridge design will be studied further and include refinement of project impacts and development of construction cost estimates prior to selection of the preferred bridge type in the spring of 2019.
STAY INVOLVED!
Please make sure you are on our e-mail list and keeping up to date on current news and events by visiting the project page at FrenchPrairieBridgeProject.org. For more information, please contact Zach Weigel, P.E., 503.570.1565 or by email weigel@ci.wilsonville.or.us