Here in Portland, we’re so well known for the many bridges crisscrossing the Willamette and Columbia Rivers that our unofficial nickname is Bridgetown, and one bridge in particular remains infamous. The Sellwood Bridge, connecting the southernmost regions of east Portland with the southern West Hills, has been derided as one of the worst bridges in America. Though it’s location is important, conveniently connecting areas like the South Waterfront real estate and OHSU homes and commutes, many people take the long way around, using the Marquam Bridge or Ross Island Bridge to avoid the unsafe Sellwood Bridge altogether. Luckily, committees have been working diligently to come up with a viable replacement bridge, and some final designs were looked over and rated last night.
For the first time, members of the Portland community got a glimpse of the proposed designs, their budgets, and the features that will make the new bridge Portland-appropriate, including wide bike lanes and pedestrian shoulders, as well as space set aside for the new streetcar line.
The favorite design overall, based on aesthetics, was a Steel Decked Tied Arch design. Other considerations to come include price, maintenance, and construction schedule. You can check out all of the designs here. We can see why the Steel Decked Tied Arch design won out of the designs that we proposed, but we’re also a bit surprised that there weren’t more innovative designs in the bunch. Portland is full of creative, talented designers and architects, and it really seems like we could have come up with some more iconic, beautiful, modern designs instead of falling back on what we already have. Bridges last for hundreds of years – i.e. the Hawthorne Bridge that celebrated her 100th birthday this year – and it seems to us that it’d be worth the extra time and money to make a bridge that represents Portland’s unique character a bit better. We’re not suggesting that the new bridge needs to be as wacky as the Badrick Bridge proposition, but it should reflect our identity more than a simple cookie-cutter bridge would.
Construction on the new Sellwood Bridge will begin in July, 2012, with the finished bridge projected in 2014. The finished bridge will no doubt improve Portland area commutes and accessibility to more great Portland Real Estate. Stay tuned to the McDonald Group Realtor blog for more updates!
_______________________________
YourRoadMapToHome.com is your resource for McDonald Group Realtors, Portland’s premiere real estate agents. Find foreclosure/short-sell updates and Portland neighborhood info, as well as search properties easily here.
