Online survey lets public choose Sellwood Bridge option
Check out the following from our Public Affairs Office regarding the Sellwood Bridge:
If you have an opinion about the future of the Sellwood Bridge, Multnomah County wants to hear from you. An online survey offered through September 9 at www.sellwoodbridge.org lets the public choose up to two preferred alternatives for replacing or rehabilitating the 81-year-old structure. Survey results will be considered by a community task force and committee of elected officials that will choose up to four alternatives for further study this fall.
Multnomah County and its project partners are in the final year of a planning project that will identify a long-term solution for the Sellwood Bridge. Earlier this year the public was invited to propose possible solutions. In May the range of alternatives was narrowed to the strongest ones. The current online survey will gather public input before the next project milestone, when up to four alternatives will advance for further study in the draft Environmental Impact Statement.
The planning project will conclude with selection of a preferred alternative in spring of 2008.
Survey participants are encouraged to learn more about alternatives before taking the survey by exploring the Build a Bridge feature of the sellwoodbridge.org website. The tool lets participants choose four required elements (rehabilitation and replacement options, interchange, alignment, and cross-section) to form a bridge alternative. The combinations of those elements create 124 possible alternatives to choose from. To make sense of all the options, participants can use Build a Bridge to learn the estimated cost of an alternative and how it scored against other alternatives.
Technical experts scored each alternative against criteria developed by the community task force. Criteria include measurable characteristics such as numbers of residences or businesses relocated, travel time, cost, and noise.
Multnomah County maintains the Sellwood Bridge and more than 300 miles of roads and bridges.
Posted on August 15, 2007
Comments
(Note: Comments are the views of their authors, and no one else.)
Posted by: Elizabeth - August 16, 2007 12:30 PM
I'm glad my county's keeping an eye on the bridge I use every day. Well, the one I used to use: after the tragedy in Minnesota, I'm taking the Ross Island, along with a whole lot of other Southeast Portland residents. I wonder why the city of Portland hasn't contributed to the coffers for this project. I know it's not their responsibility, but my safety as a Portland resident, who works in Portland, should be. As long as we're talking about monetary contributions, what about Clackamas County? Lots o' folks in our neighboring county, who work in Portland, are taking the Sellwood Bridge. It seems to me that there's plenty of people who could contribute a bit to this project, and they should.
Posted by: Jeff Cogen - August 16, 2007 03:18 PM
Thanks Elizabeth. You make a really good point.We tend to get hung up on jurisdictional boundaries and silos. The simple truth is that the entire region depends on our bridges and it's up to all of us to ensure their safety and continued usefulness. We need to work with all of our neighbors to put together a plan to deal with the Sellwood Bridge.