If you live, work or ride on SE Powell Blvd from 99th to the Portland city limits, an open house tonight is a great chance to help make it better. The Oregon Department of Transportation is hosting the event, which will give attendees a closer look at the Outer Powell Safety Project
Here’s more about the event from ODOT:
The open house will give the public an opportunity to learn and comment about plans to improve safety on four miles of Southeast Powell Boulevard from 99th Avenue east to the Portland city limits.
Improvements being studied include sidewalks, bike lanes, center turn lanes, medians, pedestrian crossings, access management, storm water treatment and bus stops. Large maps showing the project alignment will be available for discussion at the open house. The public in invited to attend and provide feedback.
To underscore just how badly safety improvements are needed on outer Powell, according to ODOT statistics, in 2012 the intersection of SE 122nd and Powell had the highest number and severity of crashes on any highway in the entire state.
ODOT says this current planning process will wrap up next year.
Tonight’s open house is from 5:30 to 7:30 at Ron Russell Middle School gym (3955 SE 112th Ave). You can also leave comments online at OuterPowellSafety.org.