Eastbank Esplanade

The Eastbank Esplanade (officially Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade) is a pedestrian and bicycle path along the east shore of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States.cite web
last =
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title = Eastbank Esplanade
work =
publisher = City of Portland
date = 2008
url = http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=105&action=ViewPark
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accessdate = 2008-04-07] Running through the Kerns, Buckman, and Hosford-Abernethy neighborhoods, it was conceived as an urban renewal project to rebuild the Interstate 5 bicycle bypass washed out by the Willamette Valley Flood of 1996. It was renamed for former Portland mayor Vera Katz in November 2004 and features a statue of her near the Hawthorne Bridge.

The project, designed by landscape architects Mayer/Reed, cost $30 million, [cite news
title=$30M pedestrian walkway project opens Friday
work= Daily Journal of Commerce
date=May 24, 2001
accessdate = 2008-04-07
url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NewsLibrary&p_multi=PJCB&d_place=PJCB&p_theme=newslibrary2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10A521DB52EEA282&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM] of which $10 million was spent to build a lower deck on the Steel Bridge. Construction began in October 1998, and the walkway was dedicated in May 2001.

The esplanade extends convert|1.5|mi|km from the Steel Bridge to the Hawthorne Bridge. The south end connects to the Springwater Corridor, a rail trail that runs south to Sellwood, then east to Gresham, then south to Boring. The esplanade includes a convert|1200|ft|m|adj=on floating walkway, the longest of its kind in the United States. Connected to this is a convert|120|ft|m|adj=on public dock. Thirteen markers along the esplanade correspond to the eastside street grid.

References

External links

* [http://www.pdc.us/ura/central_eastside/eastbank.asp Portland Development Commission Eastbank Esplanade site]
* [http://www.asla.org/awards/2004/04winners/entry208.html American Society of Landscape Architects, 2004 Design Award of Merit]