Boat ramp, bike path increase urban access to the Willamette.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg / The Register-Guard

A RIVER RUNS through the town Eugene Skinner founded, and that river is becoming more usable and enjoyable, thanks to two public works projects.

Making the Willamette River more easily accessible are the new Alton Baker Park Boat Ramp - which opened for use this week - and the East Bank Trail bike path, scheduled to open soon.

Unfortunately, both projects are being completed too late to take advantage of the great summer and fall weather. But, hey, better late than never.

And for a while it looked like Eugene might never get its own boat ramp on the Willamette River.

Yep, difficult though it is to believe, Eugene has had no officially designated boat launch.

Makeshift ramps behind the Valley River Center shopping complex and beneath the Beltline Bridge have provided the only river access within the city limits. A third unofficial ramp near the old "radio tower" in east Alton Baker Park was blocked off by the city about 10 years ago.

Now, however, an attractively designed paved, lighted ramp with a circular turnaround area provides what should be year-round access to the river. It comes complete with a parking lot featuring a dozen oversized spaces suitable for rigs with boat trailers.

The Alton Baker Park Boat Ramp is accessible via Day Island Road, which runs past the group picnic shelters and the community gardens at the Ferry Street Bridge end of the park.

The facility will make it easier for boaters to take short drifts on the urban section of the Willamette. That's should be appealing to everyone from anglers looking to take advantage of urban-area summer steelhead releases to rafters, canoeists and kayakers looking for a fun float.

Construction of the ramp is all the more impressive because it was accomplished without any financial help from the Oregon State Marine Board, the major source of funding for boating facilities in this state.

Marine Board officials turned down a grant request, saying the Eugene boat ramp had very low priority because it would not serve many motorized watercraft. (Money for Marine Board projects comes primarily from a tax on motorboat fuels.) An application for a State Parks Department grant also proved fruitless.

Eugene officials had planned on paying only half the cost of the ramp. But they decided the project was important enough to warrant drawing all $242,000 from a Parks and Open Spaces bond fund approved by voters in 1998.

"It was such an important project, we just dug deeper into our bond measure money," said John Weber, the parks planner and landscape architect who designed the new facility. Delta Construction submitted the low bid in early September and completed its work in less than two months. Riparian landscaping remains to be done, but the ramp is ready for use.

"I think what we've ended up with is an excellent facility," Weber said. "It will help attract people to that beautiful section of river - it's a recreational amenity that the city, up to now, hasn't taken much advantage of."

Now that the boat ramp is in, the city plans to utilize the new road and parking area to provide handicapped parking and a trail leading to a wheelchair-accessible viewing platform to be built upstream from the ramp, Weber said.

For boaters, the new ramp makes the river more inviting because it allows boats to be launched downstream of a hazardous stretch of river, near the Interstate 5 bridge.

"The location of the new ramp is going to be extremely useful - especially next year when that summer steelhead run comes back," said Jeff Ziller, district fish biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"It will be a perfect location for a boat-and-bike type scenario," he said. That refers to the fact that drift boaters can put a bicycle in their boat and pedal back to the Alton Baker Boat Ramp, thus avoiding the need for a second motor vehicle.

Floaters can take out at Valley River Center or at the Beltline Bridge and readily connect to the riverside bike path system.

Meanwhile, a major gap in that network of paved paths has been filled in. Concrete has been poured and asphalt laid for the East Bank Trail bike path, which links the Greenway Bridge at Valley River Center and Owosso Bridge near Marist High School.

The mile-long path cost $2.5 million. (The price was so high because a concrete causeway had to be constructed over the Delta Ponds).

The segment is not yet open to the public, but will be as soon as railings, lighting, fencing and other safety measures are installed. That is scheduled to be completed by January, according to Eric Jones, a spokesman for the Eugene Public Works Department.

The new concrete and paved path will benefit bicyclists, walkers, joggers, blade skaters and wildlife watchers. Much of the new segment of path is scenic, away from any housing or other development.

The causeway over the Delta Ponds is not only a visual centerpiece, it provides a good vantage point for viewing waterfowl and other critters that utilize the ponds.

Mike Stahlberg is The Register-Guard's outdoor writer. He can be reached at [e-mail].