THIS MAP SHOWS the location and phases of the Pioneer Street Rail Overpass Project in Ridgefield. The state legislature recently targeted $7.8 million in funds for the completion of the project.
RIDGEFIELD – Ridgefield will receive $7.8 million in state funding to continue work on a project designed to provide faster, safer access from downtown to the city's waterfront.
For officials in Ridgefield, a future overpass to connect two sections of Pioneer Street will link two long-term projects they hope will bring hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars to the small city.
Currently, motorists and pedestrians accessing the Ridgefield waterfront must cross one of two at-grade railroad crossings on either Mill Street or Division Street.
“The trains are coming around the corner … somewhere in the neighborhood of 60, 70 miles per hour,” Port of Ridgefield CEO Brent Grening said Friday.
At one point, the crossing at Mill Street was considered the 5th most dangerous railroad crossing in Washington.
“We've actually had a number of people over the years killed along the rail lines, many of them pedestrians,’’ Grening said. “It does pose a danger, and as we grow and we have more traffic it's going to get worse.”
Ridgefield is currently the fastest growing city in Washington.
The funds come at an important time for the city. In addition to present dangers and growth, Ridgefield officials expect traffic to the waterfront area to increase significantly in the near future.
For decades, much of the Ridgefield waterfront has been unsuitable for development because of soil contaminated by dioxins in the byproducts of past railroad tie production. Recently, following a 20-year, $90 million cleanup project, Ridgefield's waterfront was given a green light for development, clearing the way for a myriad of commercial possibilities – to the delight of city officials.
“This project lights up our waterfront to bring hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions in private investment. There's been a lot of work that's gone into preparing the Ridgefield waterfront for development,” Ridgefield City Manager Steve Stuart said.
With much of the Columbia Riverfront set aside by state and federal agencies, purchased for private use, or used as wildlife sanctuary, officials believe Ridgefield could provide public waterfront access for to a large region.
“This is one of the few places the public can get to the water in north Clark County,” Grening said. “So if you want to get to the water, there's very few places where you can get to the river north of Vancouver. That means there's going to be a large number of people where this is going to be their closest access to the Columbia River.
“Basically what we're trying to do is create the next great waterfront for the Northwest,” he said.
Grening expects boutique retail shops, hotels, restaurants and offices will one day occupy the space.
“I suppose there's some ability to do some very light industrial, some assembly work and that kind of thing, but that's really not what we're aimed at,” he said.
With new development on the horizon, authorities in Ridgefield needed consistent access to the waterfront that avoided unsafe and time consuming railroad crossings.
Officials made plans to connect Pioneer Street with an overpass across the tracks. Pioneer Street in downtown Ridgefield sits atop a small bluff. As Grening described it, the proposed overpass will extend Pioneer at-grade off the bluff and over the railroad tracks where it will sweep north toward the ground and land at Mill Street.
Planners divided the project into three phases and work began after the first stage of funding was received in 2006. Workers completed phase two of the project in 2014.
Grening said the current package represents the last part of the project.
“Now with this transportation bill we are able now to go to phase three and get that constructed … it is coming and we will be working on it,” he said.
The Washington Department of Transportation will oversee the project accounting. Construction should begin in 2016 and is expected to last into late 2017, which is faster than it could have been. The funds will be made available during the first four years of the roll out of the $16.1 billion transportation funding package recently passed by Washington State lawmakers.
“It's one of the earliest projects receiving funding in the revenue package,” Stuart said. “All of the money for this project comes from the first two biennia … of a 16-year package.”
With all government permits already in place, the new money will be almost exclusively used on actual construction, Grening said.
“It guarantees that we can get to work on building this project and it will help sent the stage for a downtown renaissance in Ridgefield,” Stuart said.
