Portland is declaring a new 9-mile bikeway on Portland's eastside mostly finished, unlocking a rare north-south thoroughfare for bicycle riders.

The $4.5 million project, paid for in part with grant from Metro, connects Northeast Lombard Street to the Springwater Corridor in Southeast Portland. It roughly follows 28th Avenue, but jogs to parallel streets for stretches.

Some work remains unfinished, but the the Portland Bureau of Transportation says the bikeway is ready for riders.

North-south routes for cyclists have been hard to come by because of offset street grids and limited crossings over Interstate 84 and difficult-to-cross east-west arterial streets.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation installed new, bike-friendly crossing signals at some of those tricky intersections. It also created two-way bike lanes to guide riders toward neighborhood greenways -- streets where the speed limit is 20 mph and stop signs are limited.

The route, however, jogs frequently between parallel streets to follow the street grid and avoid commercial streets where businesses wanted to preserve parking. That took it away from the direct routes longtime cyclists might prefer.

"It's not really for them," said Andrew Sullivan, a bureau engineer on the project. "The whole purpose of the project is to try to put in a facility that's more comfortable to a broader spectrum of people."

More than 7 percent of Portlanders commute by bicycle, according to U.S. Census data, one of the highest rates in the country. The bureau's ultimate goal is to grow that share and reduce car trips.

Sullivan said the bikeway is intended to entice would-be cyclists the city calls "interested but concerned" by addressing their safety questions. Of the city's 44 traffic fatalities last year, five involved bike riders.

The project should also improve some areas for pedestrians and motorists, Sullivan said. The bike crossings also function as signalized crosswalks for pedestrians. And a new signal at Southeast 30th and Stark will give drivers on 30th a dedicated green light where cross-traffic previously didn't stop.

Jay Harris, chairman of the Kerns Neighborhood Association, said the project will improve north-south connections and improve safety for cyclists and drivers.

"Our neighborhood, like many Portland inner-city neighborhoods, is getting more and more congested," he said. "Anything we can do as a community, as a city, as a neighborhood and as individuals to increase safety and is all good for us."

Terry Dublinski-Milton, a Southeast Portland neighborhood and bicycle activist who's followed the project, said it doesn't go far enough to make bicycling more appealing to potential converts.

He said the city went too far in appeasing businesses along 28th Avenue by jogging the bikeway east to 30th Avenue to avoid removing street parking. (The city did, however, lower the speed limit to 20 mph and install speed bumps on 28th Avenue through the commercial district.)

"They couldn't stand up to the businesses," Dublinski-Milton said. "It created this meandering route which is more expensive to build."

And, Dublinski-Milton said, the resulting bikeway won't make fledgling cyclists feel much safer. He said the city should install diverters to prevent motorists from using the low-speed bike routes as through streets.

"It follows city code to the letter," he said, "but I'd give it a C-plus."

Dylan Rivera, a transportation bureau spokesman, said the city has installed diverters at four locations along the route, and that it would consider adding more as needed.

The bureau is hosting a ride on a section of the new bikeway at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday. It begins at Grant Park, located at Northeast Brazee Street and 36th Avenue.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus