Don't Fence Me In!!!

[K'Tesh]

There's a new fence on the Fanno Creek Trail being put in [EDIT: Where the trail crosses SW Hall in Beaverton. /EDIT]. I've got word from Jonathan that it's part of a new ramp that's being put in. Problem is, that someone jumped the gun apparently, and started installing the fence.

At Jonathan's request I went out there and took some pictures today (I was already planning on doing it, just hadn't gotten out there).


West side of SW Hall Blvd, facing North, Beaverton

I'm all for adding a ramp (actually, I'd like two, and some stairs, AND a better way of crossing there) but I'm not at all happy with this fence. Jonathan said he's planning on doing a front page article on it.

[DaveT]

The City of Beaverton really doesn't want connectivity between their MUPs and the street. In other places they have put in offset fences to force people to dismount and walk; apparently here they decided to just block it off altogether. The city lawyers obviously call the shots; usability is not even on their list.

[wsbob]

K'Tesh, do you not have any further details about why the city has determined this fence is necessary, or do forum readers have to wait for a front page story to find that out?

My personal feeling is that most fences are kind of ugly, especially the kind that appears to be being built here. Sometimes fences are necessary though, for safety, environmental protection, maintenance and other practical reasons.

The picture seems to show posts that will take this fence across the entire end of the park, and not just across the present trail access point. That seems to suggest the fence has to do with more than simply blocking access to the current, steep, footworn dirt paths leading down to the asphalt surfaced Fanno Cr trail. If the new access ramp goes in before the fence fabric goes up, enabling continuous access to the Fanno Creek Trail, I'm not sure I see a major problem.

How about a cross-street name, so people might have a little easier time understanding exactly where the location shown in the picture is and thereby, what traffic conditions are like there?

[lynnef]

Please identify the street.

[K'Tesh]

Here's an email sent to me concerning the issue:

All:

This e-mail is in response to concerns brought to our attention about the trail extension project in Greenway Park, south of Hall Blvd. Doug Menke, the Park Districts General Manager is out of the office and asked me to reply with this information.

City of Beaverton staff approached Park District staff about constructing a connection from the dead end of the trail on the south side of Hall Blvd up to the sidewalk by angling west toward the Greenway intersection. Park District staff reviewed the alignment and agreed with it.

Several years ago, when the Fanno Creek Trail section north of Hall Blvd was completed, Park District staff reviewed a safety concern expressed by the community about trail users crossing Hall Blvd at an extremely unsafe place in the road. District staff addressed this safety concern by posting signage directing trail users to the intersection at Hall and Greenway. Since many trail users continue to cross Hall Blvd at the trail intersection, it was determined that when the new pathway connection was put in place additional fencing would be installed between the existing trail dead-end and the sidewalk.

Two issues have created the problems related to this project:

1 - The Park District did not adequately communicate via our Community Outreach Procedure regarding the work that was being proposed. Even though the work was being proposed to be completed by the City, District staff should have ensured that our policy was being followed since the work was being done in the Park. We are holding any work on the paving pending completion of our public outreach which will include signage and a neighborhood meeting.

2 - Compounding the lack of communication regarding the project, installation of the fencing was started before the pathway connection was made. This would lead trail users to the conclusion that the access from the Albertson's parking lot would be the only connection to the trail on the south side of Hall Blvd. While the fence posts are now up, the fencing material is not, and we will hold on completion of the fence until we complete our public outreach.

The District has been aware of the concerns regarding this trail crossing for many years and that led to our application to Metro for funding a trail crossing feasibility study. While the District did receive this funding, and the feasibility study should be underway soon , there is no funding for construction of the design alternative that is selected. As such it may still be several years before a final crossing solution is completed. The proposed project is an interim solution to help trail users in the meantime.

We apologize for the confusion created by this project and will work to ensure that all interested parties are notified of the neighborhood meeting related to it. Public comments or questions can be directed to Dave Chrisman at dchrisma@thprd.org or Steve Gulgren at sgulgren@thprd.org .

Thank you.

Jim McElhinny
Director of Park and Recreation Services
Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District

[wsbob]

Alright...mucho better K'Tesh..... At least for me, THPRD Director of Park and Recreation Services Jim McElhinny's letter answers a number of questions about this situation. Now that I've been reminded that the location shown in the picture is Hall Blvd, I will say unequivocally that this street is horrifically dangerous to cross between intersections, as Fanno Creek Trail travelers have understandably been inclined to do (myself included, though last time there, I just gave up after waiting for a break in the traffic, went to the Hall/Evergreen intersection with crossing signal, for a safer crossing). It's a tragic accident waiting to happen.

Angling westward up towards the Albertsons store and the signaled intersection makes plenty of sense as an interim remedy. Just off the top of my head, the better design that comes to mind would be a very wide, airy tunnel under Hall Blvd. Translation: tons of money to do it. So I wouldn't be surprised if it could be a while for that to happen. If a tunnel were to be the design selected, I'd hope it could be something beautiful, yet low-key...something like tunnel architectural design used in construction of the Columbia River Gorge scenic highway, or like the bridge in Central Park NYC seen in many, many, movies.

At the last Beaverton Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting, I believe this interim crossing project was briefly discussed, but I didn't grasp the entire breadth of it. About the following excerpt from Jim McElhinny's letter, a question: Does this imply that a particular design alternative has already been created? Or that creating designs for an alternative crossing to the existing one are what's coming up, and as such, no alternative design presently exists?

"...The District has been aware of the concerns regarding this trail crossing for many years and that led to our application to Metro for funding a trail crossing feasibility study. While the District did receive this funding, and the feasibility study should be underway soon , there is no funding for construction of the design alternative that is selected. As such it may still be several years before a final crossing solution is completed. The proposed project is an interim solution to help trail users in the meantime. ..."

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P.S., DaveT...I hope you'll reconsider dismissing ol' Beaverton's rate of progress towards improved non-motor vehicle usability of its streets and trails. Aggravating as it can be, progress on these kinds of projects can be very complicated and drawn out. I don't know how much of that's due to apathy or contempt for people that aren't driving...but my limited experience in meetings I've attended tells me that good people really are trying to make things better.

I also sense though, that some of the slowness is definitely due to a lack of awareness that biking and walking really are serious alternatives to driving around in the car. One reason for that lack of awareness may definitely be due to the fact that the people attending the meetings are mostly not the people that are doing the majority of biking and walking rather than driving. I encourage anyone reading, especially if you're from the B, to go to your neighborhood meeting a few times to see if the sense you get from it is different than the one I've gotten.

[Haven_kd7yct]

LynneF, the main thoroughfare to the right of the picture is Hall Blvd. Straight ahead and hidden by the trees is SW Greenway Blvd, a signalized intersection.

[Haven_kd7yct]

Just a quick observation: in Google Maps, when I click "bicycling" and zoom in on the general area of K'Tesh's picture, above, it shows that the trail goes from one side of Hall directly across to the other WITHOUT going up to Greenway and across and back down.

Hm. Interesting.

[hemp22]

It's kind of funny - when you "drive" past this location on google maps street view (heading Southeast on Hall), you see a dude in a red/orange hoodie, waiting on the side of the road to get across...then, shortly after the google van passes, you can look back and see him starting to dash across the 4 lanes of traffic.

[wsbob]

Originally Posted by Haven_kd7yct

Just a quick observation: in Google Maps, when I click "bicycling" and zoom in on the general area of K'Tesh's picture, above, it shows that the trail goes from one side of Hall directly across to the other WITHOUT going up to Greenway and across and back down.

Hm. Interesting.

Yep... . The people managing the ol' Google photo views do amazing things, but they also make mistakes. Something I've wondered about is what G is going to do about updating the photo inventory. If it's a manned plane or helicopter that does the photography...most likely...somebody will have to get up in the air and do it again sometime. Thanks to the Iraq/Afghani wars, unmanned drone technology may have sufficiently advanced to, in future, allow that work to be done remotely. Ah-h-h...a rainbow springs from one humanity's worst endeavors!