Starting July 1, bike commuters need to find an alternate route past the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Southeast Portland during the heart of the summer and into the fall.

The Springwater Corridor, the popular running, walking and biking path that carves through the area, will be closed to through-traffic at the refuge from July 1 to Oct. 31.

The trail to the roughly 170-acre refuge itself will be open, but commuters won't be able to continue past the construction closure. The four-month project will potentially put thousands of commuting cyclists onto city streets or on the Willamette Greenway on the west side of the river.

Portland is encouraging cyclists to take the following detours:

Use the Sellwood Bridge to connect to the Greenway Trail on the westside - a good plan for commuters traveling to and from South Waterfront and Downtown.

People who want to stay on the eastside should take the nearly-complete SE 19th Avenue Neighborhood Greenway connecting to the Southeast 17th Avenue bike lane.

Bureau of Environmental Services staff greeted bike commuters and walkers Tuesday morning at the base of the Sellwood Bridge and at an entrance to the Springwater Corridor to get the word out.

"Plan your route accordingly," Ronda Fast, a Bureau of Environmental Services staffer said. "Be prepared. It's going to be a long hot summer," she said, "but we'll get through it."

Portland officials are suggesting these routes to get around the closure on the Springwater Corridor.

The $8.8 million project will replace a pipe that runs underneath the earthen berm that separates the refuge's tidal channels from the Willamette River. The Springwater Corridor and railroad tracks sit atop the berm. The Army Corps of Engineers is picking up 65 percent of the project cost.

The number of salmon in the refuge is minimal due to the small pipe, which is about 5 feet wide. The new installation will be more than three times as large and will have a natural river-like flat bottom.

City officials hope the new pipe will bring salmon back to the area in larger numbers like a separate project in 2014 which brought the native fish to historic spawning grounds in nearby Crystal Springs.



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen