After opening the new Sherwood High School, and with eyes toward a future city expansion, the City of Sherwood began designing a pedestrian bridge over Highway 99W in 2021. This gallery explores the immediate surroundings of the future bridge through a series of visits throughout the two-year design process. Following funding approval in December 2023, construction officially broke ground in March 2024.
While Highway 99W nominally has four lanes, three additional turn lanes make the current at-grade crossing unusually long.The current pedestrian experience includes a daunting distance with two additional roadway crossings to reach Sherwood High School after crossing Highway 99W.Looking from the high school to the east, the pedestrian desire line is apparent in the path trampled through the grass.The “old” highway 99W right of way alignment branches to the southeast off of the Sunset Blvd intersection, creating this space that was briefly considered for access ramps in a potential southern bridge alignment.An initial study contemplated crossing the highway here, just north of the final alignment.The final bridge alignment will cross the highway here, threading between the trees and below relocated power lines.Spring view across the highway along the final bridge alignment.The adjacent Sherwood YMCA building was built in 1997 in a loosely postmodern style. The main bridge span over the highway will terminate at an elevated landing walkway, turning to ramp down to the right from around the second level height of the YMCA building.While many of the trees and shrubs buffering the YMCA from the highway will be removed for construction, the new planting design will feature layered elements to soften the on-bridge experience.The future east approach ramps will thread through this space between the highway and the YMCA building.View along the future east approach ramp.The lawn fronting the YMCA pool will be built up for the ramp up to the bridge, while saving space for a potential future building addition.A tree currently anchors the corner of the YMCA lot at the future east approach entry.View of the high school, across the future bridge alignment, from the Highway 99W crosswalk.Bridge span 4 will cross this undeveloped right of way between highway 99W and Elwert Rd.Sherwood High School was designed to emphasize its prominent location near the highway. The bridge will further emphasize Sherwood’s growth into this area. A paved access driveway leads to a large stormwater pond south of the roundabout.View across the stormwater pond that bridge span 2 will cross between Kruger Rd. and Elwert Rd. Remnant ODOT/Washington County right of way east of the roundabout collects stormwater from the surrounding development to form the headwaters of the Cedar Creek tributary continuing to the east.The bridge spans between roadways will feature a unique pedestrian experience up in the trees, offering variety to the long pathway.The vacant field north of the roundabout, owned by the adjacent Sherwood Elks Lodge, will be used for bridge construction staging.Crosswalk on the Kruger leg of the roundabout, looking on to the ad-hoc pathway up to the school.The future west approach will fill this gently sloped planting area between the HS practice field and Elwert Rd.View across the future bridge alignment from the Sherwood High School site.The cut-through path along the future west approach alignment became more entrenched over time.Students currently cut through this space between the high school practice field and stormwater pond. The bridge ramps will re-route access along Elwert to the main entry on Haide Rd.A project sign at the YMCA announces the bridge project.
The scale of the new Sherwood High School, Oregon’s largest with a capacity of 2000 students (although the new Benson Polytechnic High School has a larger floor area at 390,000sf), is best captured from above. The school opened in 2021, just before the bridge design phase kicked off.
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