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The Columbia Press
May 21, 2021
Trail: City to get new trail, and one completed trail
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nation of hundreds -- if not
thousands -- of cumulative
hours of effort on the part of
staff, our advisory commit-
tees and local agency part-
ners,” said Karyn Criswell,
head of ODOT’s public trans-
portation division.
“The rigor and
thoughtfulness
that our team
and our partners
bring to iden-
tifying and pri-
oritizing needs,
formulating
Criswell
project selection
criteria that advance our mo-
bility, social equity, safety,
climate and other goals, and
carefully scoring and ranking
applications is truly inspiring
and frankly, just amazing,”
Criswell told staff and others
gathered during the trans-
portation commission’s on-
line meeting. “And you did it
all during a pandemic, which
added complexity to our pro-
cesses.”
Warrenton’s project, called
the Tansy Point Connec-
tion/11th Street Path, won
$93,319 and requires a city
match of $10,681. City lead-
ers already had added the lo-
cal match to next fiscal year’s
budget.
The path creates a new way
for people to cross town and
connects existing paths in
Fort Stevens, with the Ski-
panon River Trail and the
Warrenton Waterfront Trail.
It also joins two sections of
the Waterfront Trail at Tansy
Point near Warrenton Fiber.
“It’s a planned multi-use
path that will connect down-
town Warrenton with the
Tansy Point/Alder Creek ar-
eas as well as the Parkview
community on Ridge Road,”
The new trail along the undeveloped 11th Street begins at the
south end of the KOA Campground (above) and ends at North-
west Warrenton Drive (below).
said Hallie Sweet, a Warren-
ton Public Works employee
who has worked on the proj-
ect. “This gives them a safer
route directly to downtown.”
While final plans for the
trail aren’t complete, the por-
tion along 11th Street likely
will be paved and accessible
by foot, bicycle or horseback
only. Today it is an undevel-
oped and inaccessible county
right-of-way that runs along
the south end of the KOA,
heads east through the Bral-
lier Swamp and beside a por-
tion of Tansy Creek before
ending at Northwest Warren-
ton Drive across from Alder
Creek Village.
Astoria’s project, also fund-
ed through Oregon Commu-
nity Paths, will extend light-
ing on the Riverwalk toward
the east. The $844,843 proj-
ect requires a local match
from the city of $96,696.
Also last week, the Oregon
Transportation Commission
approved several proposals
from Sunset Empire Trans-
portation District, includ-
ing $784,000 to beef up the
Lower Columbia Connector
bus route, and $60,000 for a
marketing plan.
The first Sunset Empire
project falls under the 2021-
23 Statewide Transportation
Improvement Funds cate-
gory, an initiative created
by legislation in 2017 and
funded in large part by a one-
tenth of 1 percent payroll
transit tax.
The marketing plan will be
funded by a state transporta-
tion planning grant.