As we noted recently, US DOT Sec. Ray LaHood is making a visit to Portland next week. While here, LaHood will join Mayor Adams, Congressmen Earl Blumenauer, David Wu, Kurt Schrader, and regional transportation bigwigs in the South Waterfront District.
The event will draw attention to the groundbreaking on the $23 million, TIGER Grant funded SW Moody Project. The project will construct a new roadway for SW Moody between SW River Parkway and Gibbs Street. The new road will be elevated 14 feet and include three standard vehicle lanes, dual streetcar tracks, and a 13.5-foot wide, two-way cycle track. The idea behind the project is to support the redevelopment of several adjacent brownfields as well as the completion of light rail and streetcar to the Eastside.
LaHood is no stranger to the South Waterfront District; he joined a similar slate of local leaders at a press event there back in 2009.
Full details of the SW Moody press event here.
Jonathan Maus is BikePortland’s editor, publisher and founder. Contact him at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.
We need to have a little chat with Ray about throwing his support behind the CRC.
Obama needs to raise in excess of 1 billion for his next campaign. Unless you have deep pockets I doubt you will have any traction with our transportation sec.
I’m sure the final project will be great but whoever is designing the bike detours has earned my eternal wrath and/or scorn. Just because I work in a hospital doesn’t mean someone should TRY to break my bones on the way to work. >:|
I rode to the tram for a dentist’s appointment on the hill last week and I agree. I ended up bringing my bike up on the tram and riding down to avoid the construction mess on the way back.
A few weeks ago the flaggers insisted that I take the ridiculous rube-goldberg sidewalk detour. I refused, of course. As a legal vehicle I should I not have the same right to take a detour as a motorist.
With this and the overcrowding I am glad I stopped taking the tram.
Kerry — Thanks for the feedback. Please email me suggestions for improving the bike detour on SW Moody. Let’s see if we can make it better.
Thanks,
Dan Anderson
Portland Bureau of Transportation
dan.anderson@portlandoregon.gov
I’m not sure what makes the SW Moody project notable for bicycle or mass transit advocates. We already have a streetcar in place and a cycletrack could be added for a fraction of the cost of this project. The grade is being raised 14 ft. so that OHSU can construct a massive new parking garage that will house thousands of automobiles. New streets and building will be built on top of the new parking structure base. So now we have to pay to re-construct the streetcar route. And even though we will have a streetcar and lightrail and new bicycle facilities there won’t be much incentive to use them because parking will be plentiful. On top of that, the city is directing precious federal transportation dollars to improve vehicular access to the district from I-5 while other local transportation needs go wanting.
I second your comments. I don’t see the point of spending precious federal money for a part of town with nothing of note when the road is perfecetly passable with minimal traffic and bike lanes. There are many more dangerous roads which can’t be rebuilt because of unavailable funding.
4800 new car parking spaces proposed for the Schnitzer Campus according to OHSU documents. That’s more than they currently have on their entire Marquam Hill Campus.