NEWBERG, Ore. — Concrete is poured, a crane is at work, and pile drivers are active along the Newberg-Dundee Bypass to kick off a project years in the making — one aimed at eventually connecting two communities with safer, car-free pedestrian routes.
The Chehalem Parks and Recreation District broke ground this spring on Phase I of the Newberg-Dundee Bypass Trail, a multi-use path that will eventually connect Newberg and Dundee on foot and by bike, running alongside the same corridor as the Newberg-Dundee Bypass.
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Construction completion is anticipated for November or early December 2026, according to Casey Creighton, CPRD’s assistant superintendent.
For Jim McMaster, former CPRD parks director and current president of the CPRD Board of Directors, the project has been a long time coming.
“You’ll be able to go from Fred Meyer to the heart of the city to Dundee if you want,” McMaster said during a recent tour of the construction site. “It’s building connections between all of our communities, which is what trails do so well.”
A Project Long in the Making
The idea of a trail alongside the bypass has roots going back more than 10 years, to when ODOT first began planning the bypass road itself. CPRD developed the concept as part of a broader Chehalem Heritage Trails network, envisioning connected routes for pedestrians and cyclists across the Chehalem Valley.
The permitting process alone tested the district’s resolve, McMaster said. Approvals from multiple agencies — including the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Environmental Quality, the City of Newberg, and ODOT — had to be coordinated in sequence, and delays in one permit could cause others to expire before the district could move forward.
“The permitting process for this is crazy,” McMaster said. “You get one permit, the other guys would take their time. Well, this permit would expire, so to reapply for that permit. It was very difficult.”
The funding breakthrough came in May 2021, when the Oregon Transportation Commission approved CPRD’s application under ODOT’s Oregon Community Paths Grant program. The district received $1,820,140 toward Phase I construction, with a required match of $780,060 to be assembled from municipal partners and other sources.
“Our community has expressed a strong interest in expanding the Chehalem Heritage Trails system, and this money will enable us to move on a key portion of the trails masterplan,” CPRD Public Information Director Kat Ricker said in a statement at the time of the award.
As construction costs rose with inflation, CPRD took a proactive step to protect the project’s budget: buying the bridge steel years in advance, before prices climbed further.
“When we saw things going south as far as costs, we went ahead and bought the steel,” McMaster said. “Two or three years ago. Just to have it, so we wouldn’t have to pay for it at today’s cost.”
Pulling together the match funding required some creative problem-solving, McMaster said. Eventually, the district brought the City of Newberg in as a financial partner.
The city’s budget committee denied an initial CPRD request for $400,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds, according to a report presented to the City Council at its June 2022 meeting. That prompted City Manager Will Worthey to work with CPRD on an alternative approach: the city taking the lead on the South River Street segment of the proposed trail as a way of contributing toward the project.
“The conclusion of those discussions was the city providing $25,000 to CPRD toward the design of the South River Street trail segment,” according to the council document, as reported by the Newberg Graphic.
The council ultimately agreed to reduce city fees, permits, and other charges by 50 percent — a contribution the park district estimated at between $34,000 and $40,000. The vote was 4-1 in the affirmative.
What Phase I Looks Like
Phase I is a 7,300-foot multi-use path running from the Industrial Parkway/South Springbrook/Highway 219 intersection on Newberg’s east side to the South River Street/East 14th Street intersection on the west. Connected to an existing 9,800-foot network of sidewalks and bike lanes east of Highway 219, it creates a continuous corridor stretching more than three miles.
The trail’s start is in north Newberg, at the intersection of Providence Drive and OR 99W. It then cuts down Werth Boulevard past PCC Newberg Center toward the Chehalem Glenn Golf Course, turning west on East Fernwood Road and then south on South Springbrook Road. That entire section runs on sidewalks.
At the intersection of South Springbrook and OR 219, the trail continues west to Industrial Parkway, taking that corridor all the way to what is currently a gated access point to a protected pathway. That is the Phase I eastern-most limit, with 7,300 feet — 5,200 of which are protected from vehicles — of a 12-foot-wide path that carries trail users all the way to Roger’s Landing.
The defining feature of the trail is a new 670-foot footbridge crossing the Hess Creek floodplain — positioned below the bypass bridge deck, and designed to carry pedestrians and cyclists safely over terrain that has historically made east-west travel on foot all but impossible in that part of Newberg.
What’s Happening Now
Construction has proceeded in close coordination with ODOT’s Newberg-Dundee Bypass Phase 2A project, a Wildish Construction contract reconfiguring the interchange between Highway 219 and Highway 18. CPRD received its final permits for the trail Jan. 21, 2026, according to Creighton.
The Emery and Sons construction team completed erosion control in mid-April, with excavation beginning April 24. Subgrade preparation was finished ahead of structural fill work in early May, and rock base for the trail, support pad, and crane access was completed May 26. Bridge steel pilings and temporary bridging materials arrived on site May 27.
On June 1, a crane arrived to begin driving pilings and positioning bridge girders. Welding inspectors and geotechnical staff have been on site for testing.
The work is close enough to the Newberg Airport that CPRD has been coordinating with airpark ownership on temporary runway closures anticipated on several days this week.
“One of the things that’s wild is we had to work with the airport,” McMaster said. “When you get a crane like that, and it’s a landing strip area close, you’ve got to tell people about it.”
Work on the Industrial Parkway portion of the trail is expected to follow later this summer and fall, Creighton said.
What Comes Next: The Dundee Connection
Phase I is the first half of what CPRD is planning as a two-phase, $6.4 million project. Phase II — estimated at $3.8 million — would extend the trail from River Street in Newberg to Southeast 8th Street in Dundee, crossing the Chehalem Creek floodplain on an 800-foot bridge. That segment would connect Dundee’s downtown to Newberg’s downtown via an entrance near Dundee Elementary School.
Phase II hit a setback in June 2023, when CPRD’s application was not selected to advance in the ODOT Community Paths Grant program. Funding for that segment remains unresolved — a challenge McMaster doesn’t minimize.
“We just have to find the money,” he said. “If we can get that next bridge done, it’ll be done. It’s just finding the money.”
McMaster said CPRD has applied for a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All planning grant that, if awarded, would fund a comprehensive look at active transportation infrastructure across Newberg and Dundee — and could position the district to make the case for Phase II implementation funding.
For McMaster, who left CPRD staff in 2019 and returned to the board in 2021, finishing what was started has become something of a personal mission. He draws comparisons to trail systems in Bend and Boise — communities, he said, that built livability by building paths — and makes no apologies for the ambition.
“I just think people need to see the possibilities and understand how it can bring the community together,” he said. “Do you want to travel to Bend, or to all these other places that have these trail systems, or do you want to stay in your own town and do everything here? You would have everything here.”
Construction on Phase I is expected to wrap up by early December, according to Creighton.
