There may be some misunderstanding or confusion in the previous posts. The Milwaukie light rail alignment which will start construction soon is in a private right of way. It crosses the Willamette River on a new $600 million bridge that will be shared with busses AND the Portland streetcar.

Once it lands on the east side of the river it crosses the Oregon Pacific at grade via an automatic interlocking plant and basically follows the west side of the UP Brooklyn sub through the west side of Brooklyn Yard, along the east side of McLoughlin Blvd and the west side of Reed Siding to Willsburg Junction where it crosses over the P&W (former SP ) Tillamook branch. It follows the east side of the Tillamook Branch through Milwaukie and across Kellog Lake on a new bridge parallel to the P&W trestle. It then crosses over McLoughlin Blvd and swings to the south where it drops down to grade and parallels McLoughlin Blvd. on the old Portland Tractiion Oregon City line (abandoned 1967) to Park Avenue (former PTC Evergreen station) and terminates at a park-and-ride there.

The Portland streetcar will operate on Grand Avenue northbound and MLK Blvd (former Union Avenue) southbound as well as a circular route on some lesser-known streets. Several blocks south of Clay Street the streetcar enters the new MLK viaduct presently under construction for a couple of blocks where it veers off to the southwest on a curved concrete structure crossing over the UP main @ mp 769 and the sppn-to-be-reconstructed OPR yard where it drops back down to grade and connects with the Milwaukie LRT alignment south of OMSI.

Location of the at-grade crossing of the OPR is one block north of Caruthers Street and as a result, TRI-MET will completely rebuild the UP/OPR interchange and OPR's East Portland yard which will be one block shorter but two tracks "fatter" than the present alignment.

The ORHF restoration facility will be constructed on property east of the OPR yard once the replacement MLK bridge is completed in 2011. The property that ORHF/City of Portland is purchasing from the UP is merely a "place holder" to give ORHF a presence in the area and will be traded to TRI-MET for the permanent ORHF property east of the OPR yard.

Hope this doesn't further confuse things!!!

Sammie