Preliminary work may begin in November on the Southwest Gibbs Street pedestrian bridge connecting the historic Lair Hill neighborhood to the fast-developing South Waterfront district.

Congress approved $11 million in federal transportation funds last week for the South Waterfront area, with $5 million designated for the bridge. The other $6 million will finance preliminary environmental work for improving traffic access to the area, including interchanges from Southwest Macadam Avenue to the Ross Island Bridge and Interstate 5.

The 700-foot pedestrian bridge will cross Interstate 5. It will link Southwest Gibbs Street from Kelly Avenue west of I-5 to Moody Avenue east of I-5. The route will be below an aerial tram that will connect Oregon Health & Science University to the South Waterfront. Two concrete pillars on either side of I-5 will support the steel structure, which will accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists.

“Today we are righting a wrong committed against one of Portland’s oldest neighborhoods,” said U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. “It was wrong to cut that neighborhood off from the water.”

Smith, U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., and city Commissioner Sam Adams were on hand Wednesday morning to announce the funding in the South Waterfront.

Lair Hill resident John Perry said he’s happy to see the long-awaited pedestrian bridge reach this stage. The construction of I-5 isolated the neighborhood from the Willamette River and the South Waterfront district, and Perry said many Lair Hill residents will take advantage of easy access once the waterfront is fully developed.

“It’s going to be an attractive place to go, so the bridge is really important to provide that link,” he said. “People who live and work in South Waterfront are going to be coming along our neighborhood and going along (Southwest) Corbett to shops and cafes.”

Preliminary work on the bridge is estimated to take six months to a year, and city planners said it’s unclear when construction may begin.

There’s also no date for preliminary work to begin on traffic improvements to the South Waterfront district. That depends on when the city receives the federal dollars, said Stacy Bluhm, a transportation project manager for the city.

About 25,300 vehicles used the Macadam Avenue interchange with I-5 in 2002, said Art Pearce, a city transportation planner. With condominium projects quickly going up, that figure is projected to rise to 35,000 cars each day in 2020.

It’s time to update the streets to accommodate the expected increase in traffic, Adams said.

“They were designed to serve an industrial area, and the industrial area is going to become one of the densest neighborhoods,” Adams said. “We need to redesign that for higher-capacity use.”

The South Waterfront redevelopment will feature a 31-acre OHSU River Campus and 22 acres of private development, including condominiums and businesses. Redevelopment in the area is estimated to create 5,000 new jobs during the next decade and 10,000 jobs in the next 20 years.

Construction on the tram, which will connect OHSU’s main campus to the South Waterfront district, is scheduled to begin next week with excavations at the stations, Pearce said.