Fanno Creek Trail Closures for Trail Improvements in Tigard

If you frequently run the Tigard section of the Fanno Creek Trail, you’ll want to make note of these major trail improvements and their timelines. These updates are from the City of Tigard, and if you click on the project name you can get more details and check back for updates.

And if you don’t run here often, make plans to in the near-ish future! These improvements will make an already great running trail even better. I love the Fanno Creek Trail because it’s a nice, wide path that passes through natural areas, playgrounds, and is near quiet neighborhoods. It has drinking fountains and restrooms or access to businesses with bathrooms, and it’s flat. All of these add up to a family-friendly path on which you can log quite a few miles.

Dirksen Nature Park Project

The trail section from SW Tigard Ave. to SW Teidemann Ave. is closed for work in the Dirksen Nature Park. Initial dates for this project were August 1 to October 1, but the end date is now listed as December 31. Scope of this work includes “a new trail segment and pedestrian bridge” which should be really nice and hopefully mitigate some of the trail closures due to flooding.

The end result of this project is a 1,600 square foot shelter with bathrooms, a picnic area, and nature play areas with climbing structures. Click here to see a map of this work area and the detour, which runs along the sidewalk on SW Tigard Street to a dirt/chip trail that connects back to the paved trail past the work area.

Fanno Creek Remeander Project

Currently, Fanno Creek Trail is closed from SW Main St. (by Max’s Brewpub) to near the trailhead behind the Tigard Police Station for this project. As you may recall, this section started out near SW Main Street with a wooden boardwalk connecting to an asphalt path that ran on the south bank of Fanno Creek. The work here is quite extensive … the whole area is cleared of trees with the entire path and bridge removed.

This project is expected to wrap up on September 24. I was over there last weekend and if they are able to meet that deadline I will be impressed – but if it takes a little longer, it will be worth it. The improvements to this section will actually reroute Fanno Creek closer to its historic location, create a floodplain (which will in turn prevent erosion and reduce future maintenance costs), install a more permanent steel bridge over the creek near Ash Street, and of course replace the trail itself.

Click here to see a map of this section of trail and the detour. Running on SW Burnham Street is quite fun, and I usually run this as a loop along with the trail. You get to pass a dog park and on weekends, run through a farmer’s market. The sidewalk along here also has some neat animal stamps in it.