(Photos: Mark Ginsberg)
Just got some great news: PBOT crews have taken action on the notorious “OMSI lip” by paving over a portion of the small curb that has claimed numerous victims over the years.
The lip is a small curb up to a loading zone pull-out adjacent to the bike lane in front of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry on SE Water Ave. It was difficult to discern from atop a bicycle and the curb was severe enough to grab a wheel. Last week we reported about reader Cynthia Chilton who suffered a broken clavicle after hitting the lip. Chilton was just the latest victim in what we came to find out was a very common hot spot for bike crashes.
With a current detour in place that routes bicycle traffic off the Eastbank Esplanade and onto SE Water, concerns over this dangerous curb have gained added urgency.
This morning, bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg rode by and noticed crews pouring asphalt on a portion of the lip. He gave us a call from the scene and offered this report: “They put an approximately 4-foot long asphalt transition to smooth the height difference between the asphalt roadway and the concrete parking pad.”
Below are two more photos provided by Ginsberg:
Ginsberg noted that there are two parking pads that have the dangerous lip and crews fixed the southern of the two:
“I chatted with them and they told me they were told to only put in the short section as a test, they didn’t know if they were going to be sent back to cover the rest of the lip… The work they did seemed nice, but it also seems like only a start and it is my hope that they are sent back to cover the entire lip, at both parking pads on SE Water.”
We’ve asked PBOT for more information and will update this story when we get it.
that has claimed numerous victims over the years.