More than just about anything else on BikePortland, we write about street projects — and, if our records are any indication, you like to read about them more than just about anything else, too.
But what do they cost, really? Sometimes it’s hard to visualize.
So we gave it a shot:
It’s worth noting that most of these projects were or would be funded by combinations of state, local or federal tax dollars — and in the case off the CRC through tolls, too.
Readers of the site will probably be familiar with every project on this list, except maybe the 11-block Northeast Prescott Avenue sidewalk project between 105th and 116th, which picked since it was just dedicated last month.
Here are some links to coverage of the others, from most to least expensive:
— Our coverage archive of the highway and rail expansion across the river to Vancouver is here. (The state legislature will decide in the next few weeks whether to build this project without Washington’s approval.)
— TriMet’s 7.3-mile Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail rail extension, including most of the future Orange Line, will include a yet-to-be-named multimodal bridge between the Division Street area and South Waterfront.
— The biggest single item on the City of Portland’s working transportation wishlist is $850 million over 10 years for basic street maintenance, mostly repaving work.
— PBOT’s plan to invest over six million dollars into a network of high quality bikeways and other street design updates downtown is already funded and in the planning stages.
— The new Sellwood Bridge is scheduled to open next year near Portland’s southern border.
— The 2.5-mile, two-lane Sunrise Corridor highway in Clackamas County, under construction until 2016, is the first new highway in the metro area for 30 years.
— From 2007 to 2011, the state built a new viaduct south of the central eastside where Southeast Martin Luther King Boulevard becomes McLoughlin Boulevard.
— The Portland Bike Share system has reached a closed-door agreement with its primary sponsor but is awaiting a signature and announcement.
— Work will start on the Williams Avenue safety project, adding buffered lanes to the region’s busiest on-street bike route, in late July or early August.
— Last year, Southeast Division Street got traffic signal upgrades, median islands, bike lanes and two fewer general travel lanes between 60th and 80th Avenues.
Kudos to Transitized, a Chicago-based blog about “modern transportation in cities,” whose similar infographic last year inspired this one.
People have a lot of things going on in their lives, and the scale of projects like these can be bewildering. Sometimes, it helps to take a step back and put the tradeoffs before us in perspective.