The creekfront trail project has been underway since September, but Tualatin city staff say it’s wrapping up ahead of schedule.
“I’m hoping middle of April,” Tualatin Parks and Rec Project Manager Kira Hein told Tualatin Life about the project’s substantial completion. “It ended up being a lot sooner than we thought; we were thinking like June.”
The 0.7-mile-long paved walk trail, which starts at 65th Avenue and runs adjacent to the Nyberg Creek Wetlands, will connect to the Orchard Hill Condos on Sagert Street and provide nearby residents with a walkable and scenic route to “retail, health care, education, and public facilities,” according to the city website.
Hein said that residents were “excited” about being able to walk alongside the wetlands to access amenities on the other side.
The trail cost the city around $1.6 million, funded by the 2022 $25 million parks and trails bond, and according to Hein, it is only the first phase of the complete Nyberg Creek Trail.
The entire project was included in Tualatin’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan, adopted in 2018, which provided an overview of potential park projects through 2035.
“The second phase, which is in our Master Plan, but we don’t have funding for, was supposed to connect and go underneath I-5 and go all the way to Fred Meyer,” Hein said. “The bond fundage is the first phase of that eventual under I-5 path.”
The Master Plan includes a map of future trail updates and both phases of the Nyberg Creek Trail project are shown running from Nyberg Creek, west of Interstate 5, to 65th Avenue and Nyberg Lane.
Hein said that funding for the entire trail had not been secured and that there had been no discussions about pursuing funding for its second phase.
While a total cost estimate of phase two has not been “identified yet,” according to Hein, the Master Plan accounted for $36.3 million to be spent on all trail projects in the years leading up to 2035.
Derek Byers from Nutter Corporation construction echoed Hein’s sentiment on the project’s rapid timeline, saying that the trail construction had gone “substantially faster than anticipated.”
According to Hein, the city does not have a date set for an official opening ceremony, but Parks and Recreation is “currently working on it.”
