[Dougall5505]

http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=43035
Prospectus review and approval is anticipated to be complete by late summer of 2007 and right-of-way analysis should be completed the following summer. Right-of-way acquisition includes 25 foot easements on the north and south sides of Gibbs on the east side of Interstate 5. Final design and construction documents are projected to be complete by the beginning of 2009. Construction should be from late winter of 2009 to late fall 2010. As the design of the bridge progresses, every effort will be made to accelerate the schedule.
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=132498
Sixty-one attendees completed comment cards and forty-four of these expressed a design option preference:
Option A: Continuous Truss 17
Option B: Simple Truss 1
Option C: Box Girder 30
http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=136479
the LED lighting would be very interesting
The following general comments were received:
- incorporate LED lighting
- use pollution absorbing materials, ie. titanium dioxide coating
- provide places to stop and sit on the bridge to rest or look at the view
- opt for low life-cycle maintenance costs; bridge maitenance money is scarce
and some renders:
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture1-6.png?t=1168567107
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture2-5.png?t=1168567138
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture3-5.png?t=1168567145
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture4-3.png?t=1168567161
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture5-3.png?t=1168567179
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture1-4.png?t=1168567204
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture2-3.png?t=1168567218
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture3-3.png?t=1168567226
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture4-1.png?t=1168567243
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture5-1.png?t=1168567250
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture1-5.png?t=1168567264
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture2-4.png?t=1168567288
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture3-4.png?t=1168567295
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture4-2.png?t=1168567306
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture5-2.png?t=1168567344
i like the look out area it has on all of them but i'm going to have to vote for the box girder design

[Dougall5505]

sorry guys ignore the other one if a mod can delete the other thread that would be great

[crow]

definitely option C gets my vote. it seems to be in good keeping with the progressive form of the tram and landings. love or hate them they do really have a nice attention to form. this area could become very active if they could repair the bridgehead of ross island - bike, auto, pedestrian, mass transit.

[WonderlandPark]

box girder, box girder, box girder!

This won't even start until 2009? :slob:

[mcbaby]

i like option c

[mcbaby]

i like option c

[alexjon]

Box girder for sure

[Castillonis]

Which design would allow you to enjoy the view while walking?

Would the interesting view be above?
Would you be more interested in being shielded from inclement weather?
Would you be in a hurry or thinking about what you need to do that day and merely look straight ahead?
Would any of the designs have a higher maintenance cost in the future?

Just wondering :) The triangles look pretty cool. They are similar to the triangles in the tower.

[westsider]

I think all of you can agree, that the renderings show a laughable amount of people on the bridge and ramps, if that many people cross it in a week I would be shocked.

[alexjon]

westsider, that's what it'll look like every day when they bulldoze lair hill and put up a slew of boutiques and starbucks.

Of course people will us it, then!

[zilfondel]

Box Girder, although I prefer the continuous truss's switchback to the landing on the Tram Tower. The irregular shape is pretty interesting, and helps reflect the geometry in the rest of the Tram architecture.

[EastPDX]

Box Grider gets my vote but I too like the switchback (cantilever effect) of the continuous truss. Maybe the switchback can be used in the Box Grider.


EP

[designpdx]

Option C - I like the way it plays up to the existing tower design.

[tworivers]

Box girder + switchback gets my vote, too.

[Dougall5505]

good idea thanks 65max!

[MarkDaMan]

^didn't the neighborhood already agree to option C? Which is also the most expensive option...I've read somewhere that option C was preferred, but the neighborhood is weighing using a cheaper option so they can have more neighborhood improvements from the left over money...in any case...I cast my vote for C.

[Dougall5505]

i remember that article but i think it just said that they liked C the best, but there were still concerns about the cost of C. so i don't think they have made a final decision yet

[Dougall5505]

looks like they picked the box girder design, and now there are two branches of the bridge, one connecting bikes with macadam, and the other heading toward the condo towers in the river district
more info including redone pedestrian crossings on naito and barbur and more here: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=43036&
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture4-6.png?t=1177979977
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture5-5.png?t=1177979956
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture6-2.png?t=1177979925

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture1-12.png?t=1177980012
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture2-9.png?t=1177980018
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l177/dougall5505/Picture3-8.png?t=1177980027

[WonderlandPark]

looks like they picked the box girder design

Thank God :banana:

[zilfondel]

holy shit!
Looks like Portland is getting to design nirvana... I'm so glad I'm in the design field! Woohoo!

There is hope after all!

===========

question tho: you can bike on Macadam? Where on earth would you bike to?

[cab]

http://www.gobridges.com/article.asp?id=1627

If anyone is interested, here is a good article on the importance of good pedestrian bridge design.

[65MAX]

There is hope after all!

Finally, they didn't go with the "least expensive" (aka- ugliest) option. Sometimes, you have to invest a LITTLE extra to get a LOT more bang.

[Drew-Ski]

Wow, what an amazing project!.....additions like this foot bridge will help transform the SOWA from a great project into a world class project. Creativity and attention to details will garrenty continued success.

[urbanlife]

well damn, didn't see them going with the good design with this one. Figured with the tram being so over budget they would of built the ugly, cheap bridge. Good to see good architecture winning a few battles in this city finally.

[BrG]

pleasant surprise! they picked the good one!

[zilfondel]

is there anymore news on this baby? I think it'll be another one of those iconic, district-defining projects. Especially in conjunction with the new light-rail bridge and aerial tram.

just wondering.

[tworivers]

Probably not the kind of news we were hoping for.


PDOT strolls past design team on Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge
Transportation planners say preliminary designs for the $11 million bridge over Interstate 5 were too costly, so the city’s starting over

POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Wednesday, February 13, 2008
BY LIBBY TUCKER

After hiring KPFF Consulting Engineers and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects to design three concepts for the Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge, city transportation planners have decided to walk on by the team.

Instead, the Portland Office of Transportation decided to reopen the project to new proposals, and last week chose CH2M Hill to oversee final design and public involvement on the $11 million pedestrian bridge over Interstate 5 near the aerial tram in Southwest Portland.

“It’ll probably start fresh this time,” Jody Yates, a project manager for the Portland Office of Transportation, said. “We have a different team.”

Southwest Portland residents for decades have fought for the bike and pedestrian bridge, which would connect the new South Waterfront District with the Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill neighborhood at Southwest Gibbs Street. City Council in 2002 agreed to build the bridge as part of a South Waterfront development agreement, which included the tram and a neighborhood transportation plan.

PDOT in 2006 hired KPFF and ZGF to work up three preliminary designs to help estimate the cost of the bridge and get the ball rolling so the city could fulfill its obligation to the neighborhood, Yates said. In December, the city received six bids for the final design, including one from KPFF and ZGF that did not make the cut.

The Federal Transportation Administration has earmarked nearly $10 million for the project.

And the city has already received $5.7 million from the FTA for the bridge. The remaining $1 million will come from the Portland Development Commission and city transportation system development charges.

“There were some preliminary designs done and (the costs were) … outside of the budget we have,” Yates said.

The KPFF/ZGF project team members, however, disagree that their designs were all over budget and say they were surprised by the decision to start from scratch.

“Our project was capable of being on budget and was well-received by the community, so I don’t know what happened,” Greg Baldwin, with ZGF, said.

Public input on the initial concepts favored the design that came closest to mimicking the angular geometry of the tram, but the bridge was also “substantially” over the target price, Baldwin said. The most basic design came in slightly under budget, he said. And the third design fell in between, about 10 percent over budget, with a cost that the architect says could have been engineered down.

Members of a citizen advisory committee for the bridge, which helped select the final design team, hope to wring even more money out of the budget, however.

“We were promised if we can come under budget, we can use the extra money to work on the South Portland circulation plan,” Ken Love, president of the Southwest Portland Neighborhood Association and a member of the committee, said. “So the design is just going to be simple, and we’re hoping to maybe do some additional artwork on it.”

The final cost of the project is largely up in the air again because the bridge will be completely redesigned. However, the city says it will not allow the cost of the bridge to exceed the budget.

“Sam does not want to spend any more transportation dollars we have at PDOT on a pedestrian bridge,” Roland Chlapowski, transportation policy advisor to Commissioner Sam Adams, said.

The project team that CH2M Hill pulls together will work under ODOT’s “truck load” of design constraints, which govern where the bridge supports can be placed to allow future widening of I-5, Mark Foster, the Federal Highway Administration’s liaison on the project, said. And the difference in elevation between the east and west ends of the bridge is large, which also poses a design challenge, he said.

“The transportation plan really needs to come out of another budget,” Baldwin said. “I don’t think it’s possible to dramatically lower the cost of the bridge, but I could be wrong.”

City Council today will consider signing an inter-governmental agreement with the Oregon Department of Transportation giving the city the go-ahead to build the bridge over I-5.

Construction on the bridge is scheduled to begin no later than the fall of 2009 to meet federal funding requirements, according to the city.

[pdxman]

Why does this not surprise me? It seems like every proposed project in Portland goes over-budget. Maybe they can just build a zip-line to go over I5 ;) Cheap and fun!

[Diffbean]

^ Maybe they should just start building stuff instead of hiring and firing the design teams and wasting all the monies on administrative tasks. This is just one in a long line of wasted time and funds (greenway, sw park, etc). It is looking more and more like the city does not care about the design in SoWa.

[CUclimber]

Great, another delay. I live 3 blocks from the site of the bridge (on Corbett) and I was really hoping that it would get built in the next 2-3 years.

[MarkDaMan]

Members of a citizen advisory committee for the bridge, which helped select the final design team, hope to wring even more money out of the budget, however.

“We were promised if we can come under budget, we can use the extra money to work on the South Portland circulation plan,” Ken Love, president of the Southwest Portland Neighborhood Association and a member of the committee, said. “So the design is just going to be simple, and we’re hoping to maybe do some additional artwork on it.”

There is something seriously sick about that...the ped bridge design, which will be there for a hundred years or more, shouldn't be sacrificed so they can plan for better circulation off the Ross Island bridge. They are two separate projects and one shouldn't have to sacrifice budget and design in order to make another long shot possibility move an inch forward.

If they want cheap, someone should transpose the Failing Street Ped Bridge into a rendering to show them what cheap and ugly looks like.

[alexjon]

Chances are, too, that they wouldn't even get the money into the circulation project anyway

[SKgottime]

to allow future widening of I-5.

With gasoline prices predicted to reach $4/gal this spring and evidence that world peak-oil production occurred in 2005, I doubt that there will be much freeway widening in our future.

[PacificNW]

I agree with you to a point but the I-5 corridor has been designated (by the Feds) a major North/South transportation route crucial to the movement of commerce. It will be widened....just not for the commuters.... 4 trucks..

[sopdx]

Yes, and isn't that brilliant. We (the US) have divested from rail - a much more cost effective way of travel and transport and invested hugely in trucking. But no worries, trucking and the cost to transport goods will not be affected at all by rising gas prices.

[PacificNW]

⇑ I couldn't agree with you more...

[CUclimber]

Maybe they'll widen it to accommodate the tracks for the Seattle/San Francisco MagLev train. :haha:

[Okstate]

Updates?

[philopdx]

Since this one has its own thread, I'd figure I'd post here rather than the general SOWA thread.

Updated from 10-29-2011:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6231/6295860394_6efcf99e0a_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6230/6295329437_1eb38e4192_b.jpg

[PacificNW]

This is going to be a nice addition...

[philopdx]

Update 11-6-2011:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6115/6320135653_0f796d0551_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6218/6320658510_cdb273d33d_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6033/6320137727_36e635edb4_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6233/6320660498_edd04eed6c_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6114/6320661948_84667546c1_b.jpg


And, as an added bonus, I spied two workers on the tram doing maintenance:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6048/6320663030_854a60c842_b.jpg

[philopdx]

Gibbs St. Bridge update 3-18-2012:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7053/6847552562_a700a72e21_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7200/6847553164_b9547b71c8_b.jpg

[philopdx]

SOWA bridge update 3-26-2012: Notice the glassy, watery artwork on the tower.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7045/6873518520_dee2d228fe_b.jpg

[MarkDaMan]

^Thanks Philo for all the photo updates!

[PacificNW]

:previous: Ditto!

[2oh1]

It's so good to see this project underway! I love what they've done along that column. Sweet.

[philopdx]

Update from 4-7-2012:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7193/6911282432_275a3427c7_b.jpg

[philopdx]

Gibbs St. Bridge 4-21-2012:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8144/6954871968_02bb8fb5df_b.jpg

[bvpcvm]

It looks complete, but apparently it's still not. Grand opening June 23rd (http://gibbsbridge.org/). Why did this take so long to build?

[philopdx]

The construction itself was pretty fast, but now we're waiting for red tape I guess. June 23rd? That's a little disappointing. Pics from today:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7098/7290564526_b36d56c239_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7092/7290563190_7e70af2c90_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7083/7290561112_7901eb75df_b.jpg

[tworivers]

Can you at least use the thing? Or is it blocked off somehow?

[65MAX]

:previous:
No, they have it completely fenced off with lots of "No Trespassing" signage.

[tworivers]

Interesting. Sounds like an invitation for a self-guided tour to me.

[meryland]

Here's several pictures I took from the new bridge on July 15 2012.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-yLn0Pux64d8/UAOQx70mVeI/AAAAAAAABG4/UbV2r73YOCk/s1247/IMG_1340.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-HgVg6Fi3Zr8/UAOQy3u_U2I/AAAAAAAABHA/ELX5Zh8XsyU/s1247/IMG_1341.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-IQOnS0uTfc8/UAOQzyn8okI/AAAAAAAABHI/1d4S4EvxHGc/s1247/IMG_1342.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-yhKgvsWj6OM/UAOQ04rtCVI/AAAAAAAABHQ/D23AOyOHxd8/s1247/IMG_1343.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-i2Yd74eEQsk/UAOQ1h7K75I/AAAAAAAABHY/mXde9lLV6RQ/s1247/IMG_1344.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-y4E_PhVAn0Y/UAOQ2njanUI/AAAAAAAABHg/8X9cU5PqtMc/s1247/IMG_1345.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hHZrouO6y4s/UAOQ3l17sRI/AAAAAAAABHo/om67556SeIg/s1247/IMG_1346.JPG

The whole album (69 pictures) is available here (https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103227216890810985430/albums/5765610042356886993). :)

[pylon]

Just returned from playing a game of bocce down there, via the bridge.

[PacificNW]

Thanks for the pics!:cheers: