Old Evergreen Highway takes first step toward trail vision

Vancouver’s old Evergreen Highway includes plenty of ancient fir trees, glimpses of the Columbia River and a back-way route all the way to Camas.

It doesn’t have much room for walking, however.

So neighborhood activists were thrilled recently when the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council directed $925,000 in federal funding to engineer and build a mile or more of trail west from the intersection of Ellsworth Road.

“We’re very, very excited,” said Rick Takach, an area resident who has organized support for the trail. “This is the first time in, I think, forever that we were able to get something. We’re looking at it as a big shot in the arm.”

The roadway traces its history back to the dawn of the age of the automobile, with many of the concrete sections adorned with date stamps back to 1918. State Highway 14 displaced the old Evergreen Highway decades ago as the primary route east to the Columbia River Gorge. It now serves primarily as a residential thoroughfare characterized by homes ranging from opulent modern riverside estates to modest houses built in the 1930s.

Yet many motorists continue whipping along at highway speeds, despite posted speed limits of 35 and 40 mph around Ellsworth.

Neighborhood activist Dode Jackson said the lack of sidewalks creates an unsafe environment for pedestrians. She’s especially worried about older people, children and parents pushing baby strollers. During a stroll along the road earlier this week, Jackson pointed to several areas where pedestrians have no room at all without vehicles swerving into the oncoming lane of traffic.

“You’d have to dive into the ditch,” she said.

City officials and neighborhood organizers envision the new federal grant as a first step to a much broader vision.

They said the pathway would ultimately connect Vancouver’s existing waterfront trail that currently terminates at Wintler Park all the way east to the city limits near 192nd Avenue. That’s a distance of roughly seven miles.

Matt Ransom, the city’s transportation planning manager, noted that it’s been a decade since the first section went in — running east from Ellsworth to the old Vancouver fish hatchery. Depending on the specific engineering and property constraints, Ransom said the new path may be separated by a curb or it could include more elaborate sections separated from the highway by natural vegetation.

“We just landed this grant to begin more advanced engineering and build the trail as far as we can from Ellsworth west,” Ransom said.

Neighborhood activists are determined to maximize every penny of the federal grant, and they say they’re looking into private funding possibilities to build the entire pathway between Camas and Vancouver.

“We want the city to pay for it, but the fact is they don’t have any money,” said Chris Kellogg, a 20-year resident.

Takach said neighborhood groups are planning to explore the possibility of forming local improvement districts among property owners. He said they’re also looking for new public- and private-sector grant opportunities. Piece by piece, the idea is to eventually link the entire trail from Wintler Park to 192nd Avenue.

The total cost is uncertain.

“No one really knows,” Takach said. “It could be $10 (million) to $15 million. We’re hoping to work very closely with the city to spread those dollars as far as possible.”

Challenges ahead

The distinct character of the highway presents an opportunity for the city to showcase its history, but it also presents engineering challenges. Kellogg would like to see the original concrete roadway preserved, with minimal impacts on adjacent property owners or the majestic canopy of trees lining the roadway.

“You can’t just plop a trail down,” he said.

The federal grant is the biggest of five federal transportation enhancement grants in Clark County. The Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council last week selected five projects to spread $2.3 million in federal funding.

Besides the trail along Evergreen, other projects included money for a new pedestrian overlook from downtown Ridgefield to its namesake national wildlife refuge, sidewalk enhancements around the county and partial funding of a pedestrian railroad overpass at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge north of the city limits. It also included a small contribution to a trail paralleling a rail line between Battle Ground and Battle Ground State Park.

Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551, or erik.robinson@columbian.com.