PORTLAND, Ore — If you've been on Burnside Bridge over the last couple years, you're probably be excited to hear construction is wrapping up.
But before you get too excited, know it comes with some inconvenience. The bridge will close down from 11 pm Friday until 5 am Monday morning as crews remove traffic barricades and apply new striping.
When the bridge reopens on Monday, bridge users will notice a new traffic layout in addition to the completed repairs.
The new layout will speed up buses and support safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers.
Multnomah County and the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) worked together to develop this new striping plan, which includes a transit-only eastbound lane and a two-foot-wide buffer zone with candlesticks between bike and traffic lanes.
“Transit only lanes speed up our buses. If they're not stuck in traffic, then we can get people where they need to go faster but they also help everyone else,” Tia York.
Trimet says Burnside is the first "shared use" bridge with a bus only lane.
The new bus lane runs eastbound on Burnside, starting at W 2nd Ave. and extending across the bridge, benefiting more than 25,000 riders a day who travel on TriMet lines 12, 19, and 20.
PBOT plans to extend that lane to E. 12th next year.