BEND, OR -- Bend City Council will soon start gathering feedback on what the public wants the future Hawthorne Pedestrian Bridge to look like. "We received a federal grant and some state grants; so it’s really fully funded by grants," says City Manager Eric King.

The new bridge will span the Bend Parkway and railroad, from about Hill to Second Street, "It would be a bicycle and pedestrian bridge connecting our core area to downtown," says King, "We’ve begun to look at feasibility, high-level design types. We have three different bridge types." Those options are a cable-stayed design, extradosed, or steel truss - similar to Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge, "So we have those three types that we’re going to take out for comment and then Council will make a decision, a recommendation on which one, based on that public feedback, in June." 

An open house is scheduled for late May and feedback will be accepted online before the City Council makes a final decision in June. King tells KBND News, "Then we give that project to ODOT. Because it received federal funds, ODOT is required to deliver that project. So, they would actually do the detailed design and construction of it." He adds, "The timeline is June to make a decision on the type of bridge. The timeline to actually have it open and functioning is 2027."

Click HERE for more on the options under consideration.