Paving project will lead to cycling detour for N Williams Ave

It’s not clear why PBOT is requiring bicycle users to detour while allowing auto users to continue on Williams. We’ve asked for clarification on that as well as whether or not bicycle riders and other vulnerable road users could share lanes on Williams with other road users.

Ground-down surfaces are not safe for bicycle tires as the grooves can easily catch and channel smaller tires. You’d be fine with wider tires, but my hunch says anything under 40mm would not be very pleasant or safe to ride on.

I’m assuming the bike lane will likely be closed as they do the work. Even if it were open, the grooves left after grinding can be a major hazard. Definitely fine for fat bikes and mountain bikes, or for cyclists on skinny-tired bikes who have more experience with rough roads. Ever see those “Motorcycles use extreme caution” signs when they are grinding highways?

Riding a road bike with skinny tires on a ground up pavement is no fun, so I think I’ll be taking N Cleveland for the duration of the project. At the moment the worst pavement on N Williams is actually between N Broadway and N Russell where the apartment construction dug up and re-asphalted the bike lane, but left it quite rough. This happens a lot when developers have to dig through pavement.

Last year when this type of work happened on Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy there was no detour because it’s SW and alternate routes just don’t exist. Let’s just say riding on pavement in the middle of this type of project is pretty terrible. Two weeks for a grind and pave is pretty fast, when they tried this in SW it took two months (in Spring so weather delays were involved). Unless you enjoy that type of riding taking a detour is the way to go.

PBOT should put a stop sign for cars at Beech to allow for people on bikes to cross over the car lane. There is poor visibility at this intersection. -Or a prioritized bike light at Fremont to allow bikes to merge prior to cars starting (I know this is probably to expensive, but it could be permanent, which would make it worth it.)

At least they are sharing information in advance of this project, usually they just show up and start working.

Cleveland feels like a bad choice to me; there are a lot of stop signs for cross streets (Failing, Shaver, and Mason) and people park close to the curbs which reduces visibility. The pavement is also pretty rough between Beech and Shaver. I understand that they don’t want the detour route to be too far off Williams, but Rodney is already a greenway, is smoother, only one block further, and has better connections to continue N/S. There also needs to be good signage for drivers on cross streets like Alberta and Skidmore alerting drivers to watch for more bicyclists crossing where there are no crossing facilities.

Also, how are cyclists expected to get onto Cleveland? Make a right at Fremont, then a left across a very busy street? Maybe my nose is too sensitive, but I smell a distinct lack of forethought in putting this detour together.

+1 to resopmok

Rodney is a much better detour then Cleveland. Only 200’ further away, but with a better pavement surface and fewer stop signs.

Ted Buehler
Rodney resident since 2010

Honestly, they should just close the entire road, end to end where the work is and do it. It’s safer for the workers and ultimately faster. The whole idea of trying to work while multi ton death machines are driving through your workspace is dumb.