French Prairie Bridge Meeting Set For Monday

WILSONVILLE, OR — The French Prairie Bridge Project Advisory Task Force will hold a public meeting on Monday to assess evaluation materials that will be used in the design, placement, and construction process for the proposed bicycle, pedestrian, and emergency-access bridge across the Willamette River in Wilsonville.

At this time, nothing has been finalized. The meeting is meant to further inform the city and community of logistical challenges, final costs, and the overall feasibility of constructing a new bridge over the Willamette River from Wilsonville to the area referred to as French Prairie, which includes "Champoeg State Park and Historic District, the historic towns of Aurora, Donald, Butteville, Gervais, Hubbard, St. Louis, St. Paul, and Woodburn, and a number of French Prairie historic churches," according to the Friends of French Prairie website.

The city-hosted event will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. May 22 at City Hall, 29799 S.W. Town Center Loop East. The Wilsonville community is invited to attend, city spokesman Jon Gail said in a statement.

This meeting marks the task force's second since the $1.25 million project began last Fall, which aims to develop preliminary designs for the proposed bridge.

From Gail's meeting announcement:

The project management team will provide a summary of the feedback received at the recent public open house events, including a well-attended Feb. 22 open house and Feb. 22 to March 12 online survey. Through these events, community members and stakeholders shared priorities and vision for the bridge and provided feedback on options for the bridge alignment and landing point.

The most important considerations identified by the 70 community members and 36 online respondents included neighborhood impacts and pedestrian/bicycle connections to major destinations and trails.

Meeting materials are available online at www.FrenchPrairieBridgeProject.org, where the public can also sign-up to receive project updates, submit a comment or question, or view other information.

The Wilsonville City Council is expected to formally consider the project after all fact-finding efforts have been completed — sometime in Fall 2018, Gail said.

For more information, visit www.FrenchPrairieBridgeProject.org, or call city Project Manager Zachary Weigel at 503 570-1565, or email weigel@ci.wilsonville.or.us.

Image via Zachary Weigel, City of Wilsonville