Community Connector:
Selected Design Concept Announced
What is the Community Connector: For more than a century, historic Fort Vancouver was connected to and had a strong interaction with downtown Vancouver. This bond was severed more than 50 years ago when Interstate 5 was constructed. The Community Connector Project will reconnect the Fort Vancouver National Site with downtown Vancouver. Because of construction impacts of the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project to rebuild the I-5 Bridge between Vancouver and Portland, mitigation is required under federal law. In its comments to the draft environmental impact statement published by the CRC project, the National Park Service, Fort Vancouver National Trust and the City of Vancouver each noted that required mitigation must provide improved connections between downtown Vancouver and the historic site, including an expanded pedestrian overpass at Evergreen Boulevard.
Click here to download Hospital perspective image as JPG
Click here to download Central Walk perspective image as JPG
Click here to download Grotto perspective image as JPG
Click here to download Site Plan perspective as JPG
Download PDF of selected design concept
View Elson Strahan's presentation to Project Sponsors Council (12/4/09)
Community Connector in the News
"An economic asset," Vancouver Business Journal (2/5/10)
"Crossing the Great Divide," Vancouver Business Journal (2/5/10)
Click here to view CVTV interview with Elson Strahan and Matt Ransom
Click here to view the Community Connector design presentations on CVTV
"Progress times two" Columbian editorial (10/21/09)
"Cap design heals cut," Columbian (10/19/09)
"Committee selects design team for Fort Vancouver connector," Oregonian (10/19/09)
Required Mitigation for Columbia River Crossing and the Community Connector
Independent Review Panel (6/2/10)
Vancouver City Council Workshop (12/26/09)
Presentation to Project Sponsors Council (12/4/09)
Draft Environmental Impact Statement (6/26/08)
The following links are graphic depictions of the community connections proposed by the Washington State Department of Transportation for the SR 520 corridor project from Seattle to Redmond. These several community connections for SR 520 are not included to meet Federal mitigation requirements. They are incorporated in the corridor project as project enhancements. However, while not being driven by mitigation requirements, they do indicate the kind of community connections that the Washington State Department of Transportation has included in other highway projects and could include in the Columbia River Crossing project over I – 5 between the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and Downtown Vancouver to meet mitigation requirements.
