Portland, Oregon road meet

[Dougtone]

Portland, Oregon Road Meet

When:    Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 1:00pm    
Where:    The Old Spaghetti Factory, 715 S.W. Bancroft St., Portland, OR 97239

Agenda:  At The Old Spaghetti Factory, we will meet, eat and greet. This will be followed by a roadgeeking tour of the Greater Portland area.

As for a tour, I was thinking of checking out the OR 43 Willamette River Bridge project, MLK Viaduct project on OR 99E, and a general tour of some things in the Portland area, including what would've been I-505 as well as the St. John's Bridge. This tour may also include among other things, so stay tuned...

If you are interested in attending this meeting,
please email us at dougtone@gribblenation.net.
You will be placed on a mailing list to inform you of any updates and changes.
Please RSVP by Thursday, September 3, 2009 so I can call in an accurate head count to the restaurant.

This meeting is open to all persons.
http://www.gribblenation.net/meets/portland.html

[andytom]

I will be visiting Oregon in September, from Saturday 9/5/09 through Wednesday 9/9/09.  I was wondering if anyone in the area would be interested in going to a road meet in the Portland area on Saturday, September 5th?  I would be willing to set up a meet, but would need assistance on setting this up, since I live in Upstate New York.

I'm game.  I might be able to do some of the local legwork.  You probably want to look at the ODOT project webpages for regions 1 and 2 to see if there are any projects you would be interested in seeing.
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION1/ProjectPage.shtml
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION2/current_projects.shtml
Or the Clark Co., WA projects:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/?s=county-clark,funding,location,route#listing

--Andy

[andytom]

Oh, and you'll miss the opening of the MAX Green Line by 3 days.  It's supposed to open on 12 SEP.  They're already running the new trains on the current lines.

--Andy

[Bickendan]

I'm game.

[Dougtone]

How about the meal portion of the meet?  I was thinking perhaps the Gustav's restaurant over in Clackamas.  Does anyone have a different suggestion?

[SSOWorld]

You know it's too bad I'll be near Sacramento that weekend  

of course there's a lot to clinch around there too 

[Dougtone]

As for a tour, I was thinking of checking out the OR 43 Willamette River Bridge project, MLK Viaduct project on OR 99E, and a general tour of some things in the Portland area, including what would've been I-505 as well as the St. John's Bridge.

[xonhulu]

I might be able to show, depending on which day you have in mind.  Sunday would probably work, not as sure about Monday.

[Dougtone]

I am looking to have the meet on that Saturday, probably at 1pm.

[andytom]

How about the meal portion of the meet?  I was thinking perhaps the Gustav's restaurant over in Clackamas.  Does anyone have a different suggestion?

A couple suggestion that I have:

One of the Newport Bay locations (sea food), one that I know of has a small separate room that we might use near I-5 and US-99W.

The Old Spaghetti Factory (Italian and pasta), one in Clackamas (don't know the location), one on the south waterfront near the south end of the streetcar and the lower OHSU tram station, and one on the west side (near US-26 and NW 185th) where we can then go through the 10 yrs worth of work done on the Sunset Hwy and the current work on OR-217 (interesting BGS sign mount on the back of a pickup truck).

--Andy

[Bickendan]

There's of course the Montage, under the Morrison St viaduct at SE 3rd Ave, if you're into Cajun food. That's in very close proximity to the Morrison Bridge Water Ave offramp reconstruction and I-5's eastbank ghostramps.

[rawr apples]

i'm game

[Dougtone]

For lunch, it may be best that we meet near a rail station, because I may not be renting a car while in Oregon (for most of my visit, I should not need a rental car).  I will be able to plan for a meet and around the meet, so this should not be much of an issue.

[andytom]

For lunch, it may be best that we meet near a rail station, because I may not be renting a car while in Oregon (for most of my visit, I should not need a rental car).  I will be able to plan for a meet and around the meet, so this should not be much of an issue.

Of the ones that I specified, the downtown Old Spaghetti Factory sits about a block from the south end of the Portland Streetcar line.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=45.494811,-122.669585&spn=0.005693,0.011491&t=h&z=17

the building with the purple roof in the south part of the picture on the west bank of the river.  See http://www.osf.com for menus and times (the Portland store, not the Clackamas or Tanasbourne stores).  See http://trimet.org to get train schedules and MAX connections.  Train stops are shown on Google Maps.  Click on the stop markers to get stop ID's for trip planning through the Tri-Met website.

--Andy

[Dougtone]

And of course, a full fledged announcement of the Portland road meet is here...
http://www.gribblenation.net/meets/portland.html

Portland, Oregon Road Meet

September 5, 2009

When:    Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 1:00pm    Where:    The Old Spaghetti Factory, 715 S.W. Bancroft St., Portland, OR 97239

Agenda:    At The Old Spaghetti Factory, we will meet, eat and greet. This will be followed by a roadgeeking tour of the Greater Portland area.

As for a tour, I was thinking of checking out the OR 43 Willamette River Bridge project, MLK Viaduct project on OR 99E, and a general tour of some things in the Portland area, including what would've been I-505 as well as the St. John's Bridge. This tour may also include among other things, so stay tuned...

If you are interested in attending this meeting,
please email us at dougtone@gribblenation.net.
You will be placed on a mailing list to inform you of any updates and changes.
Please RSVP by Thursday, September 3, 2009 so I can call in an accurate head count to the restaurant.

This meeting is open to all persons.

[Dougtone]

And from someone on MTR, I've heard that there is a retaining wall being built from the top down on OR 217.  Haven't heard of that method of retaining wall construction (I always assumed it was from the bottom up).  While it may not be a tour stop itself, it could wind up being included in a tour route.  I'm trying to keep the tour itself to a reasonable time frame, 2-3 hours after lunch, which seems to work at the meets back east.

[andytom]

How's this for a tour:

Hit the Grand Ave. Viaduct project.

Up to I-84 and out to I-205 then south to the Oregon City-West Linn bridge project viewing the not-quite-open Green Line along 205.

West on 205 to I-5 then 217.  Catch the current project at the north end and stop at the Sunset Transit Center garage overlooking the 26-217 interchange which was rebuilt a couple of yrs ago.

East on 26 with a possible stop at the top of the hill to check out the interchange there rebuilt several yrs ago, then to 405 (brand new driving surface last weekend and this coming one) to US-30 out to the St Johns Bridge.

If time left, come back over to the Interstate Bridge on Marine Dr.

Adjust as necessary for other viewing opportunities or interests.

--Andy

[Dougtone]

Just a last call of sorts about the meet...

Portland, Oregon Road Meet

When:    Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 1:00pm   
Where:    The Old Spaghetti Factory, 715 S.W. Bancroft St., Portland, OR 97239

Agenda:  At The Old Spaghetti Factory, we will meet, eat and greet. This will be followed by a roadgeeking tour of the Greater Portland area.

As for a tour, we will be going with the tour itinerary suggested by Andy Tompkins...
Hit the Grand Ave. Viaduct project.

Up to I-84 and out to I-205 then south to the Oregon City-West Linn bridge project viewing the not-quite-open Green Line along 205.

West on 205 to I-5 then 217.  Catch the current project at the north end and stop at the Sunset Transit Center garage overlooking the 26-217 interchange which was rebuilt a couple of yrs ago.

East on 26 with a possible stop at the top of the hill to check out the interchange there rebuilt several yrs ago, then to 405 (brand new driving surface last weekend and this coming one) to US-30 out to the St Johns Bridge.

If time left, come back over to the Interstate Bridge on Marine Dr.

Adjust as necessary for other viewing opportunities or interests.

If you are interested in attending this meeting,
please email us at dougtone@gribblenation.net.
You will be placed on a mailing list to inform you of any updates and changes.
Please RSVP by Thursday, September 3, 2009 so I can call in an accurate head count to the restaurant.

This meeting is open to all persons.
http://www.gribblenation.net/meets/portland.html

[Dougtone]

Here's the meet recap from the Portland meet.  I would definitely have to say that Portland reminds me of Pittsburgh, with all its bridges and hills, especially after this meet. 

Four people (Doug Kerr from New York, Andy Tompkins & Chris Elbert from Oregon, and John Spafford from Washington) met up on September 5, 2009 at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Portland, Oregon for the first Portland, Oregon road meet.  What began as a rainy afternoon, turned to a much clearer afternoon as lunch was eaten and discussions were had. 

After lunch, a tour of some road projects, roads and bridges in the Portland area were seen.  First, we went to the Grand Ave. (OR 99E) viaduct in Portland, which is getting a complete rebuild in place.  The old viaduct was built long ago (if someone could clarify with a time period, that would be great), and is currently being modernized.  Then we went up OR 99E to I-84 and then to I-205.  Along I-205, we saw test trains being run for the Green Line, which is a light rail line that will be opened to travel in about a week from now.  We then went to the Oregon City-West Linn bridge (this carries OR 43) over the Willamette River.  It's an old and crumbling bridge, built in 1922, and is definitely in need of work.  There is an ODOT project for the bridge that will begin in 2010.  There is a website for this project at http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION1/OR43_Willamette_River_Br/index.shtml.

Then, we took I-205 to its southern end at I-5, then up I-5 to OR 217.  We then took a look at construction happening along OR 217 near US 26, followed by checking out some views along the Sunset Highway (US 26).  Then we took US 26 through the Vista Ridge tunnel into downtown Portland.  We then took I-405 to US 30, passed along what was planned to be I-505, and then went up to the St. John's Bridge, which is the only suspension bridge in the Willamette Valley.  We then went to the Sauvie Island Bridge, which was recently replaced, and then back to the Old Spaghetti Factory, where we said our goodbyes and went on to our respective destinations.

[Dougtone]

And now we have a meet page with photo from the Portland meet...

http://www.gribblenation.net/meets/pdx09.html

[Alex]

The link for return to Pete Jenior's Roadgeek Meetings Page page should be http://www.gribblenation.net/meetings/, it currently directs to http://www.gribblenation.net/meetings.html