Red Electric Trail gets a push

TRIB TOWN • East-west commuter route might take up to 20 years, $17 million

By Anna Johns

The Portland Tribune, May 22, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

For Don Baack of SW Trails, the city’s recent action on the proposed Red Electric Trail, which would connect Washington County to the Willamette River just south of downtown Portland, is a big step forward.

L.E. BASKOW / P0RTLAND TRIBUNE

At 70 years old, Don Baack walks his dogs, Tasha and Siskiyou, at least four miles every day on the trails that wind through the hills of Southwest Portland.

They’re trails that he and dozens of volunteers maintain through his nonprofit organization, SW Trails.

Baack, along with volunteers and the occasional politician spend weekends clearing forested areas of invasive species such as ivy, holly and blackberry bushes. They haul gravel and install railroad ties that direct water running off the trails between homes and down steep slopes.

But the trails are meant primarily for recreation, not bike commuting.

“Most of these trails run north-south,” Baack said. “We need something that goes east-west.”

For the past decade or so, Baack has been a vocal advocate for a trail to connect Washington County to Portland’s South Waterfront. It’s called the Red Electric Trail, because it loosely follows an old railroad line by the same name, and he’s thrilled that it’s finally on the city’s to-do list.

Last week, the Portland City Council voted to accept a planning study from Portland Parks & Recreation that lays out a proposed route for the Red Electric Trail. The study included traffic and safety research as well as neighborhood input. It took four years to complete.

The proposed route begins at the future location of the Fanno Creek Greenway Trail on Southwest Oleson Road. The Fanno Creek Trail is 10 miles long and, despite a few gaps, serves commuters in Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Durham.

The Red Electric would head east from the Fanno Creek Trail and climb over Portland’s Southwest hills using side streets and new and existing trails, then end at Southwest Macadam Avenue on Portland’s waterfront.

“It is intended for families and someone my age to use it,” Baack said. “It can be used for recreation, but also for commuters from Beaverton and Tigard.”

Constructing the trail would require cooperation among various metropolitan agencies, including the city parks bureau, Portland Office of Transportation, Washington County, Tualatin Valley Parks and Recreation, the Metro regional government and at least a dozen neighborhood associations.

The trail plan calls for adding sidewalks or bicycle lanes on a handful of roads, such as Southwest Shattuck Road, Southwest Cullen Boulevard and Southwest Bertha Boulevard. Such projects would require coordination between the parks bureau and the transportation office, which is known as PDOT.

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