#9, Hawthorne Bridge, focus on the circle between the eastbound & the westbound ramps and/or the intersections of the ramps with the surface streets

I took these photos on Thursday, December 1, about 7:30 a.m.


A close view of the finished sidewalk around the edge of the circle. This sidewalk is a massive improvement over what used to be there. I imagine its being there will encourage people to walk on that side of southbound MLK. The trees next to the sidewalk were planted early this week--the holes were dug last Wednesday, a day of high wind and rain. No one worked on Thanksgiving Day, plus I noticed that the trees were still lying on their sides, just like they'd been left on Wednesday. The street that goes out of sight beneath the westbound ramp of the Hawthorne Bridge is SE MLK. If you look closely, you can see the Big Pink rising in the distance at the left side of the photo.


Another edge of the circle where you can see three of the built-into-the-curb drains, the rock placed between the plantings strip and the curb. That angled strip of gray is the rock-filled run-off from the drain you can see in Wednesday, 11/30/2011's post, the third of three photos. In this photo the cars and the truck with Milky Way written on it are stopped at the light at SE Grand Avenue and SE Madison. The traffic goes one way north on SE Grand.


And here we have the completed sidewalk across from the circle. The crosswalk is completely new, the handicapped ramps, the truncated domes matts, and the stripes on the street. The Hawthorne Bridge with the arrow pointing left takes drivers around the circle and onto the westbound ramp--that's where the white car is headed. The white tractor is headed south on SE MLK. By the time the streetcar is operational next September 21, the traffic signal will be functional so that people who exit the streetcar on the far side of SE MLK will be able to cross safely. The streetcar stop is just out of sight to the right edge of the photo.

Now, the posts about this transformation are finished. Until something else major happens, we'll say good-bye to this subject which totally intrigued me throughout.

#7, Hawthorne Bridge, focus on the circle between the eastbound & the westbound ramps and/or the intersections of the ramps with the surface streets

I look outside on November 17.


At first I didn't see anything other than lots and lots of black cylinders, tossed everywhere on the green grass in the circle.


Then I saw these three men, working at gathering what turned out to be black pots. It makes sense to plant as much as possible on a slope, in addition to the trees which had been planted days before. Hopefully the roots will soon grab hold of the freshly placed dirt and remove the chance that it will erode during Portland's wet winter. You can see the gray-colored path the men made, walking back and forth from their white trailer parked on SE MLK to the bottom of the slope. It says Valley Growers on the side of the trailer.


They or some other nurserymen returned at some other point and planted even more on the slope which goes up to the westbound bridge ramp, on the right of the photo where the dirt is bare. Notice the puddle beside the pile of rocks near the bottom edge of the fall foliage? There is a pretty-good-size pipe resting on the rocks. Your view of it is blocked by the man stacking black pots together, but you can see it in the photo above this one. I am assuming that is the drain for at least one of the several small-box-culvert-looking drain devices built at intervals into the curb--you can see one at the bottom right corner. I believe that bale of hay helps slow down the flow of water which enters through oval-shaped hole in the curb.

#6, Hawthorne Bridge, focus on the circle between the eastbound & the westbound ramps and/or the intersections of the ramps with the surface streets

On such a sunny day, working outside with a task one could accomplish must have been a rewarding activity.

I took this photo later in the day from when I took the photo on Monday's post, a little over four hours later. A crew poured the rest of the sidewalk on the inner edge of the circle. The white truck is pulled to the curb on SE MLK, which is a one-way street, southbound. The bridge ramp above it is the eastbound exit ramp of the Hawthorne Bridge. The Ross Island Sand & Gravel truck is pulled to a stop on the circle. The man on his knees is creating a recess for the installation of the yellow vinyl section of truncated domes, that rectangle that looks sort of like permanent, wide-spaced, opaque, yellow bubble wrap which you see along the edges of subway stops and in the handicapped ramps from sidewalks down to street level. Truncated domes, which meet ADA requirements, serve as a detectable, tactile warning surface for the visually impaired. I myself like to stand on them at corners while I wait for the light to change, unless there is a visually impaired person there, too. My feet enjoy the massage. You can see what looks like two pieces of yellow, one on each side of him as he scrapes and smooths. I for one am glad to see that the sidewalk is as high off the surface of the circle as it is--I doubt that rain will stand on that sidewalk, ever.



The truncated domes matt has been installed, near the end of the plank the man is standing on near the bottom center of the photo. Now these men are continuing to finish the sidewalk's surface. The man on the left is using a pad attached to the extended-length handle. The other two men are on their knees, smoothing by hand.


In this photo you see more finishing work in progress. The man walking on the plank is crossing back to the street because he has finished using the extended-length handle and pad on the concrete. And you can see the slightly different colored rectangle to the left of where steps, there in the gray concrete. That is the truncated dome matt. The planks that cross from one side of the sidewalk to the other were moved to the right a few feet, and the work continued.

#5, Hawthorne Bridge, focus on the circle between the eastbound & the westbound ramps and/or the intersections of the ramps with the surface streets

I took Saturday and Sunday off, chilled and painted with acrylics on canvas board and such. I'm back now.


On November 10, the view from SE MLK, looking east. I was so taken with the BUMP sign that I failed to notice the area to its right, ready to become the rest of a new section of sidewalk. You see, previously along the edge of the circle, no sidewalk existed, just a narrow paved path with a handicapped ramp to street level, but no crosswalk or signal for the handicapped to use in crossing the circle, however. You can see the ramp and the no crosswalk clearly here.

This photo illustrates what I had said here about the circle reminding me of a tilted bowl. See how much higher the circle looks where the pavement disappears into the leaves on the tree? And see the traffic through the guardrail? That traffic is heading north on SE Grand Avenue. The traffic signal with the One Way sign at the right edge of the photo is the second photo in this post.

#4, Hawthorne Bridge, focus on the circle between the eastbound & the westbound ramps and/or the intersections of the ramps with the surface streets

First, I have to share this exciting comment which appeared on Wednesday's post: This is part of the Streetcar Eastside Loop project. The circles (here and at the Morrison Bridge ramps) are being rebuilt to serve as stormwater treatment facilities for street runoff. In addition, at Hawthorne/Madison, and at Belmont/Morrison, there will be a sidewalk added on the west side of Grand Avenue, to make access to and between streetcar stops and bus stops easier. This includes restricting some of the free-flowing on- and off-ramps onto Grand Ave. New signals are also being added so walkers can cross M.L.King Blvd. easier. The one at Morrison is now working. Find out more at an open house Dec. 1 at the Arch. Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand from 5:00 to 7:30.

Now. We're back to the series of photos which I am sharing about the changes in the intersection at the east end of the Hawthorne Bridge, either as part of the curve between the eastbound and westbound ramps at SE Grand or as the circle of earth between them, which is also bordered on the west by what is now SE MLK.


There's a whole lot going on in this photo. I love it. So, these two morning commuters on SE Madison are heading west towards the Hawthorne Bridge proper. Once they cross SE Grand Avenue, running left to right on the photo, they will soon go over the Willamette River and be in downtown Portland. Between them you see dug-up pavement, some sort of heavy equipment which surely moves and/or digs, the orange-and-white traffic bollards, and the workers' port-a-potty. Notice the white plastic on the pavement, almost hidden by the bicyclist? It is covering concrete-filled forms which now extend south from this westbound ramp to the eastbound ramp, creating a curb which prevents vehicles from driving hell-bent-for-leather around the curve, coming east and going west in a loop. You can see one of those vehicles, a white SUV, here in Monday’s photo. Now in order to make that loop, drivers will actually make two left turns. The curve has been obliterated, redesigned as part of the Streetcar Eastside Loop project. One more really neat thing. See the bit of turquoise and white, just about in the low center of the photo, in the opening between the trees? That is the roof of a TriMet bus, the #6. It has just come off one-way, southbound SE MLK, and will either stop at the bus stop there beside the Hawthorne Bridge, or it will just continue around the loop and head up onto the westbound ramp and take its passengers over the bridge into downtown. You can see it's route on Monday’s photo, too. It tightly curves closest to the snowy evergreen shrubs. Those shrubs are now removed. Knowing that the roof of the bus is just about even with the roadway gives you an idea of the difference in elevation between the two parallel streets, SE MLK and SE Grand.


Quite a bit going on in this photo, too. The TriMet bus is stopped at the traffic signal, heading east off the bridge ramp onto SE Hawthorne Blvd., after it crosses SE Grand, the street going left to right across the bottom of the photo. The last white car on the right in the stopped traffic is at the spot where vehicles used to be able to curve left to make the loop back west. Now you can see black plastic covering the forms-and-concrete curb that has been installed to prevent traffic from flowing that way. And you can see the rest of the white plastic covering the southmost end of that new curb. I have to tell you, that I couldn't figure out what would come next because there has never been any pedestrian traffic allowed on that west side of SE Grand. Curious over here.

#3, Hawthorne Bridge, focus on the circle between the east-bound ramp and the west-bound ramp

The CAT dumps dirt from its bucket into the second truck bed of a dual-dump-truck rig. I don't know the official name of the rig. Do you? By the time a few days had passed, the earth-movers had the ground sloped smoothly from the circle down towards SE MLK, the street you see with the crosswalk. The circle reminds me of a tilted bowl, low rim down by MLK. And on the left of this photo you can see the east-bound exit ramp of the Hawthorne Bridge.

#2, Hawthorne Bridge, focus on the circle between the east-bound ramp and the west-bound ramp

Here's the same circle from yesterday's photo--no snow because I took the photo on September 14, 2011,standing on SE MLK which is the street where the UPS truck was located in yesterday's photo. I couldn't imagine the purpose of digging up everything. The west-bound approach ramp for the Hawthorne Bridge is just beyond the tree beside the CAT. You can see a bit of the structure between the two green trees on the left of the photo. And those narrow horizontal rectangles to the right of the CAT are guard rails on the ramp. Notice that all of the shrubs from yesterday's photo have been removed.