Portland’s Newest Pedestrian-Only Bridge Will Open Next Week

PBOT announced the opening today with a video that seems more like a GMC truck ad than a teaser for a bike route.

MHS_4462 (1) Watching TWO MASSIVE CRANES install the Flanders Street Crossing bicycle and walking bridge. (Mick Hangland-Skill)

After years of hype, the Portland Bureau of Transportation has announced the city’s newest pedestrian bridge is almost ready for public use.

June 4 will mark the grand opening of the $9.5 million Flanders Crossing, a 200-feet bike bridge over Interstate 405, streamlining the currently fractured bike route between Northwest and downtown Portland.

PBOT announced the opening today with a video that seems more like a GMC truck ad than a teaser for a pedestrian bridge. Set to some heavy blues rock, the clip gives a sneak peek at the spacious multiuse path and, for some reason, boasts that the bridge was built using “TWO MASSIVE CRANES.”

Weirdly macho ads aside, PBOT estimates that Flanders Crossing could host up to 9,100 trips per day.

The bridge is the final piece of an almost two-decade effort to improve cycling routes between Northwest and downtown’s waterfront. It’s the first pedestrian-only route across I-405.

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