The wooden footbridge below Columbia Park has a walking surface about seven feet wide. That is too narrow for two cyclists to pass each other comfortably. Its planks have worn uneven over the years, and its east approach needed grade changes to meet ADA standards, The Bulletin reported in May 2025. In the same story, City engineer Janet Hruby said the bridge was structurally sound.
The Gilchrist Bridge is coming out anyway. Columbia Park and the bridge closed at 8 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, and Bend Park & Recreation District expects both to stay closed through early summer 2027. A few miles downstream, Sawyer Park is entering its own construction season. Neither project is replacing something that is falling apart. Both are rebuilding pieces of the river corridor that were designed for fewer people than now use them.
A Bridge That Works, on a Trail That Outgrew It
The Gilchrist Bridge was built before 1994. A March 2026 board report from the City and BPRD says it does not meet current multi-use trail standards, including width. The report also notes that the city and the district had already looked at a cheaper fix. A light-material redeck was the only workable short-term repair, but it would not meet the longer-term goals for mobility, safety and trail connections.
Those goals matter because of where the bridge sits. It connects Gilchrist Avenue to Columbia Street through the park, joins the Deschutes River Trail to the Haul Road Trail, and carries part of the City's low-stress route and the Bend Bikeway. On BPRD's Riverfront Street project page, the district calls the Deschutes River Trail the most heavily used trail in Bend, averaging more than 1,200 trail users a day. That figure covers the whole trail, not this one crossing. Still, it explains why a seven-foot deck has become a bottleneck.
The use is still growing. At its Oct. 20 meeting, the BPRD board heard that river parks logged 1.1 million visits and that trail-counter use at Bend Whitewater Park was up 17 to 20 percent since 2022. In a BPRD column published in The Bulletin, the district described Columbia Park and Sawyer Park in the same terms:
"While these parks are very different from each other, they share a commonality in that both need help to sustain high use for the long term."
Getting Across the River Until Summer
With Gilchrist closed, BPRD has named two pedestrian crossings as the official detours.
- South: the Bend Whitewater Park footbridge, upstream of the construction site.
- North: the Galveston Avenue bridge at Drake Park, where the trail's Riverfront Street segment begins its run toward Miller's Landing Park.
The closure covers more than the bridge. The playground, the lawns, the pathways and the rest of the park's amenities are fenced off as well, for safety and because of how complex the project is. If the pirate ship playground is part of your family's routine, BPRD's column points to the park locator at bendparksandrec.org for other playgrounds.
The river itself is mostly unaffected. In its Oct. 21 update, the Oregon State Marine Board listed every Deschutes River segment and ramp as open and noted the Columbia Park project as a closure. It also listed the accessible paddle launch at Miller's Landing Park as open. BPRD says it will close sections of the river only when the work requires it, including while the old bridge is removed. Notice will go up at river access points and out to stakeholders and the media beforehand. No date for that closure had been announced as of the Marine Board's Oct. 21 update.
What Comes Back in 2027
The rebuilt park will not be a bigger river destination. The district's column states this plainly:
"It's important to note that Columbia Park is a small neighborhood park, and it is not intended to be a river access destination like other parks such as Riverbend, Farewell Bend, Miller's Landing and Drake Park."
Instead, the plan adds a small river entry and exit point, places to sit by the water, restored riverbank, accessible paths, plazas and site furnishings. The bid scope in BPRD's August board packet also includes boulder terracing and new abutments and wing walls for the replacement bridge. Central Oregon Daily reported that the access steps and handrails will resemble those at Miller's Landing. The district's column adds that the new access point will be much smaller than the others to keep with the neighborhood's character. The City and BPRD bridge agreement also requires anti-jump deterrents and barriers that keep vehicles off the span.
The park has history behind it. It was a quarry during Bend's mill days, it was a park before BPRD became a special district in the mid-1970s, and it was developed with help from three Land and Water Conservation Fund grants in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That same federal fund is paying for this round of construction, along with a donation from the Joseph & Elizabeth Hoffart Charitable Foundation.
The project grew in March, when elected leaders at the district and the City folded the bridge replacement into the park work. Here is how the budget has changed since then:
- March 17, 2026: The City agreed to contribute up to $1,478,350, with $295,000 for design, testing, inspections and permits and $1,183,350 for construction.
- July 23, 2026: Bids were opened. Deschutes Construction Corporation came in lowest at $868,092 for the park work plus $1,624,362 for the bridge, a combined $2,492,454.
- August 18, 2026: The board packet put the full project need at $3.35 million including contingency. Another $748,091 from the City, the Hoffart Foundation and the Land and Water Conservation Fund left a remaining gap of $33,559.
When the work is done, ownership and maintenance of the new bridge will pass from the City of Bend to BPRD. In KTVZ's coverage, BPRD landscape architect and project manager Ian Isaacson called the project a city and district partnership to improve river access, ecological conditions and trail connections, and asked the public for patience during construction.
Downstream, Sawyer Park Loses Its Parking Lot
Sawyer Park on the north end has the opposite problem from Columbia Park. Its trail stays open, but its car access is going away for a while. The Sawyer Park upgrades will move the parking area closer to O.B. Riley Road and add accessible parking, habitat restoration, more accessible trails, a permanent restroom, a picnic shelter and a river overlook. On June 2, the BPRD board awarded the construction contract to 2KG Contractors, Inc., the lowest of three bidders at $2,124,200. The project page lists $3.3 million allocated, with grants covering more than 70 percent, and an estimated completion in summer 2027.
Sawyer's timing is less certain than Columbia Park's. BPRD's Oct. 6 board update listed the project as still in permitting, said permit delays had held up the start, and said the contractor was expected to mobilize on site in October. The district's column says the lot off O.B. Riley Road will close as soon as the final permit arrives. It also says parking along O.B. Riley Road is not allowed, and the park stays open to people walking and biking the Deschutes River Trail. If you usually drive to Sawyer to fish the river or sit on the lawn under the shade trees, the column recommends visiting other parks until the project finishes next summer.
Part of a Longer List
Both projects come from BPRD's river access and habitat restoration plan, which lists dozens of projects that the district is working through one at a time. The column points to the access points recently finished at Miller's Landing and Riverbend South as the model, with recreation and restoration designed to work together. Nearby, the City is finishing the design for Riverfront Street. That street between Galveston Avenue and Miller's Landing has served as the river trail for years and is one of the last gaps in the trail through downtown. BPRD says the final design is almost complete.
Next summer you should be able to cross the river below Columbia Park again on a bridge built to current multi-use trail standards. Until then, the Whitewater Park footbridge and the Galveston Avenue bridge are the two ways across.
Projects like this change how a neighborhood gets around, including which streets connect to the river trail and where families walk to play, and that affects how a home's location feels day to day. If you're thinking about what the rebuilt river corridor means for a home near Columbia Park, Drake Park or the north end, Julie Reber is happy to talk it through with you, from new trail connections to the access points opening in 2027. Schedule a Free Consultation.
