Last week, road crews reopened a freshly paved and curbed two-block segment of SE 64th Avenue next to the Mt. Tabor Maintenance Facility. This work builds the base infrastructure for a new multi-use pedestrian and bike path from SE Division Street to the southwest corner of Mt. Tabor Park. The street improvements and path are the only publicly accessible portion of the Mt. Tabor Central Maintenance Yard Project currently under construction.

Later this summer, cement masons and landscapers will create 500 feet of multimodal pathway between SE 64th Avenue at Sherman Street and SE Division Street. When opened, this pathway will provide a much-needed shortcut to the public recreation space for those living south of the park. However, the new rainwater management on this street will also improve conditions. An array of unlined stormwater planters will collect and absorb rainfall as it runs downhill, with overflow captured by the city’s underground system. Water runoff from Mt Tabor is significant, and this update will fight erosion on this sloped topography. Unfortunately, the project did not create sidewalks on the west edge of SE 64th Avenue, and the asphalt surface ends in a gravel shoulder.

Over a year ago, crews began construction at the Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) property to modernize the central maintenance facility at Mt Tabor Park. The improvements stemmed from a 2014 patchwork of funding that implemented plans from 2009. The Mt Tabor Yard is the primary dispatch point for PP&R maintenance and nursery services across Portland, with over 140 maintenance employees working from this location. The street improvements and pathway are minor compared to the overall project but will immediately impact park access. Once the new maintenance yard is fully operational, city crews should be more efficient in their efforts to keep the park system functioning.

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