Last night City Council voted to move forward on purchasing an easement on the island to Minto-Brown Park. A Public Hearing on October 25th will guide the height and cost of the bridge - estimates range from $5.6M to $11.4M. Because of 18th and 19th century laws regulating river commerce - laws from a time when our river system was the interstate! - the Willamette River Queen and Coast Guard essentially determine the choices among which the City and public must choose. 
More later when the hearing details and report are published.(See yesterday's City Council note for links to the other reports.)
2 comments:
You know, with a Democratic Gov, 2 Democratic Senators, and a Democratic house member, it's really just a failure of the Salem City Council to pursue closing off the slough to river traffic so that it's no longer a navigable waterway. From what I can tell, Capt. C is desperate to try to broker a deal that would keep the Queen in business, dredging downstream in return for going along with closure of the slough permanently. Some bollards stuck in the river would do it, and then the bridge height issue goes away, and you design a bridge for maximal bike/ped ease.
Walker, it's surprising to hear you suggest dredging as part of a solution! Isn't the "current" trend in green restoration to de-channelize the river and to let it return to some of its shallower and more meandering trends?
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