Great News on Pedestrian Bridge

Preliminary Plan, Option One, with Ramp A.

Over the past several years, we have been working hard to secure funding for a Pedestrian Bridge to connect the new High School to neighborhoods on the SE side of 99W. Many of you responded to my “Call to Action” to let the lawmakers in Salem know that this is an important project for our community.

I am pleased to inform you that we have secured four million in lottery funds from the State to help pay for this bridge. Alongside that, we recently approved a new urban renewal district that will raise much of the remaining funds to complete this project. All of this was done without raising taxes on our community. Sherwood Taxpayers send a lot of their dollars to Salem in the form of taxes; it is nice to get some of that back!

City staff is in the process of starting the engineering work that is required for the project and determining the most cost-effective approach to getting this project. These projects do take some time. I am hoping we can get this started and completed by 2023.

We are not stopping there. We want to create a crossing at Cedar Creek near Mienike to help our middle school students get safely across the highway. This project will require us to lift 99W to restore the stream corridor and a path to go under 99W. This is a much more expensive project and will require even more creative funding sources.

I want to thank all people who responded to my “Call to Action” on this project. Over 500 of you shared your thoughts on why this bridge is essential. I was able to share that with senators and representatives in Salem. I believe that was critical to securing the funds! I also want to thank the Mayor, my fellow councilors, and city staff. So many meetings, letters, phone calls, not to mention making the rounds in Salem, went into this effort. It is nice to see all of that work pay dividends for our community.

More to come on this project; stay tuned!