That sinking feeling
Our sympathies go out to the people who live on Kelly Avenue near the Ross Island Bridge in the Lair Hill neighborhood of southwest Portland. Once upon a time, it must have been a nice little residential street, but for many decades now it's been nothing but a glorified on-ramp for the bridge. The traffic runs 24/7/365, and during afternoon rush hours, the avenue is a parking lot full of idling cars with anxious drivers itching to rev it up and get flying across the river to Powell Boulevard.
On Thursday, a sizable sinkhole opened up under Kelly, clogging the traffic up even further. No doubt the drivers sat even longer, with more fumes coming out of their tailpipes and their ears. Supposedly the powers that be have got it patched up temporarily, but more work is on tap to try to stabilize things.
We're not surprised to hear about the hole. We lived just a couple of blocks west of there for several years in the '90s, and a pretty scary one opened up in the yard of the nice little house we were renting. The soil in that part of town is not the most stable.
In fact, it's interesting -- if you go to Google Street View to get a look at that stretch of Kelly, you see it ripped up by a crew working underground:
Wonder what that construction was all about.
And of course, this past winter, crews have been busy building a pedestrian and bike bridge across I-5 just east of there. The supports for the new span probably required quite a bit of digging. We're no soils engineer, but not knowing more, we certainly wouldn't bet against that having something to do with the current troubles.
Anyway, a shout out to our former neighbors over that way. They'll never be free of the traffic -- and when the bicycle entitlement set starts whipping through there, gunning for the new bridge, it's going to get even crazier -- but at least may the earth stop moving under the residents' feet.
| Posted at 9:45 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (8)
S.W. Gibbs...S.W. Gibbs...where have I heard that name before? Wasn't it in the news, a while back? Wait, I have it! There's a tram thingie that runs right above it, like a pair of flying Twinkies. Could the constant back-and-forth of those masses be altering the local gravity in the area? (heh)
I'm so glad that we didn't buy in the area, as we considered some years ago. That funky little corner market was just a block down the hill from the place we were considering, but nowadays, the whole place is a parking lot.
Posted by Max | April 23, 2012 12:27 PM
Many Many Many years ago there were deep ravines that when through that area. They were filled in over a period of many years with trash and miscellaneous junk. Some of them still have underground streams, which can cause sink holes. There was a sink hole at first and Aurthur several years ago that went down 70 feet.
When the big quake hits that area will liquify into a soup that will probably swallow up whole buildings, etc.
Look at this map from 1879, at the right hand side there are two deep ravines.
http://vintageportland.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/es-glovers-birdseye-map-portland-oregon-1879-5k.jpg
Posted by Lowered Expectations | April 23, 2012 4:14 PM
That is a truly beautiful map.
Posted by Jack Bog | April 23, 2012 4:17 PM
Do you not see all of the carbon emission coming from the smokestacks on those ships?
This is why it is imperative today that we build a Sustainability Center; we must atone now for the sins of the past.
Interestingly, look at the size of Tanner Creek, depicted to the left as it emerges from the old Canyon Road. Hardly a tiny stream; it was fed (and still is, for the most part) by its own headwaters near Sylvan and by over a dozen streams flowing from springs on both sides of the ravine - and by seasonal winter runoff.
These springs didn't go away; like the main creek, they've been "undergrounded". Multiple springs exist on the grounds of what is now Oregon Zoo, and two of the most prolific are located at their administration building and a bit below it. When portions of the zoo began sliding toward highway 26 in the 1960's, ODOT installed a substantial number of boulders along the embankment to stabilize the slope, and they maintain monitoring stations to this day. For its part, the zoo dug two deep wells (one of which is visible from a public path) to collect the water, which they then pump into the sewer system.
Posted by Max | April 23, 2012 5:12 PM
Notice on the 1879 map, on what appears to be fourth ave, a train!
Heaven help us, those evil train builders have been around for more years than anyone could have imagined. I wonder who the Sam-Ran twins where in 1879?
Posted by Lowered Expectations | April 23, 2012 5:37 PM
Low'r'd Ex's,
Yes, indeed, a fine map. Thank you.
In 1879, when this map was entered into the Library of Congress, there were no bridges and Mt St Hellens was the preferred spelling.
Caruthers, down amongst the Union Civil War generals though he seems to have been a missionary during that conflict, will soon have a bridge that also appears to be rather near the erstwhile ravine -- deep enough for a bridge of its own -- that is the cause of chronic structural collapse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caruthers_Bridge
Please remind me, what are our reasons for believing that due diligence has been performed by the engineering firms contracted by Metro to erect, rather hastily -- especially considering the lengthy process that may eventually yield a new Sellwood Bridge -- the P-M light rail span?
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | April 23, 2012 6:07 PM
Ruh roe. They must have filled in that ravine where SW First crosses Woods pretty quickly, as my house was (supposedly) build in 1880!
Posted by Lair Hill resident | April 23, 2012 8:24 PM
Just to the top of the two ravines on the right is the Central area of SoWhat. Notice how it is wetlands and partially fill even then. Where were the environmentalist when SoWhat was proposed for this wetland area that recently flooded with over 3ft to 4ft of water in the 1996 flood? Plus there is a major fault line running generally N to S right through the URA. The area is ripe to be liquedified.
Also notice the namesake for Tanner Creek, the Tannery located right in the oxbow of Tanner on the left. That's right where PGE Park/Jeld-Wen sits. That area is ripe for a big sink hole, especially when we have an earthquake.
Posted by Lee | April 24, 2012 3:26 PM