coming to east Portland.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is close to the start of construction on a new “neighborhood greenway” that would parallel 82nd Avenue in northeast and southeast Portland. PBOT has put out a request for proposals to find a construction firm to start and the project is scheduled to begin next month.
The three-mile route would mostly use 86th and 87th Avenues and would stretch from NE Hassolo Street (near I-84) to SE Bush (south of Powell). The project is one of many neighborhood greenway projects PBOT is working on throughout the city (their plan is 15 miles of new neighborhood greenways (a.k.a. bike boulevards) each year through 2013).
To create a more comfortable and accessible route that parallels 82nd Avenue (an ODOT-controlled arterial), PBOT will use the familiar tools of speed bumps, curb extensions, sharrows, speed bumps, cycle-tracks, tree plantings, new signals, signage, and so on.
The northern section of the route — from NE Hassalo to SE Market — goes through already calm residential streets and will receive a mix of speed bumps, turned stop signs, and curb extensions. But in the southern portion of the route — from SE Market to to SE Bush — PBOT has much more ambitious plans, some of which are still under review with ODOT.
To get bicycle traffic safely across the offset intersection of SE 87th and SE 85th at SE Division, PBOT will install a two-way cycle-track on the south side of Division (similar to what they did on NE 33rd at Going St)…
On SE 85th between Clinton and Brooklyn, PBOT will take advantage of ample existing right-of-way to build a new, 18-foot pathway for (two-way) bicycle and walking traffic…
Further south, to help make the crossing of SE Powell between SE 85th and 86th easier, PBOT’s initial plans were a series of cycle-tracks: one on the north side of Powell which would then connect to another cycle-track on SE 86th that would continue south to SE Lafayette…
Unfortunately, PBOT says the Powell crossing with cycle-tracks as shown above is now on hold until next year as they iron out details with ODOT (since Powell is a state-controlled arterial).
PBOT says construction — except for the Powell crossing — is set to being in July.
Learn more about this and other projects in the pipeline from PBOT’s neighborhood greenway program here.