Starting Monday, February 25th, the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services will close North Vancouver Avenue from Russell to Hancock.
The closure is part of the Eliot Sewer and Stormwater Project that’s giving a much-needed upgrade to about 10,000 feet of century-old sewer pipes in the southern section of the Boise-Eliot neighborhood.
Unfortunately their work will close the second busiest cycling route in the entire city: North Vancouver at Russell. According to Bureau of Transportation counts, 4,705 people pass by this intersection every day (second only to the N Interstate/Lloyd/Oregon (Peace Park) intersection which has 4,890).
While the majority of people riding southbound on Vancouver (it’s one-way) are headed westbound to the Broadway Bridge, BES will set up a detour that leads riders east two blocks to the neighborhood greenway on NE Rodney Avenue (car and truck drivers will use MLK Jr. Blvd). See the map at right for details.
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Keep in mind that the detour will be in place Monday through Friday from 9:15 am to 6:00 pm.
If you roll up to the closure during active work-zone hours and think you’ll just hop onto the sidewalk, here’s a message from BES:
When the street or lane is closed for construction, pedestrians and cyclists can almost always use the sidewalk, but should do so with caution. Sidewalks near construction zones can become unusually congested and awareness of your surroundings can help avoid accidents. Please take extra time to walk or bike past work zones. In addition, cyclists must avoid riding on closed roadways even if it looks like there’s enough room for a bike to navigate around construction. When construction takes place on a street with a bike lane, crews will post signs to guide cyclists.
As always, if if you ride in this area please make sure to let us know how this closure and detour is treating you.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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So how many auto users are just going to take Flint rather than MLK?
Most of them, I would guess.
Thats going to cause a lot of problems for Harriet Tubman’s drop off zone saftey. I wonder if PBOT is doing something to mitigate that?
Closure starts at 9:15, so this might be just after drop off time.
You would guess wrong. Flint at Broadway is right turn only. Right turns at Vancouver and Broadway are illegal. So if you are heading to the broadway bridge, you are already taking flint, and if you are heading south or east, flint won’t get you there.
It’s quite simple: you turn right on Broadway from Flint and then make the next left to get to Weidler eastbound. This would be significantly faster for those wanting to get onto I5 South. It’s going to happen. A lot.
Do you drive a car? That’s a difficult move to make; merging across 3 lanes of traffic in half a block, when the detour onto a major arterial results in the same amount of out of direction travel.
I do. You can do it with the breaks in traffic due to the signal at Vancouver/Broadway.
You underestimate drivers and the things they will do to save a few seconds off of their commute. Google/Waze will direct people to do this maneuver when MLK gets clogged up with all of the additional diversion traffic. Depending on the backup from Russell->MLK->Broadway, this could save minutes.
I’m sure the flaggers will push them over to MLK. ; , ;
Will this project include significant bike/ped improvements to N. Vancouver when completed?
BES can’t spend money on bike infra. This is an underground pipe project. The only surface upgrades are ADA ramps where they disturb crosswalks (marked or unmarked).
I think the only responsible thing to do would be to also shut down Flint to non-school auto traffic to avoid the carnage that would result from allowing all the normal N. Vancouver traffic to race past the already troubled school pickup zone on Flint
Here’s a positive: that stretch of Rodney has spanking new asphalt. Not crazy about defaulting through NE Broadway / Williams to get to the bridge.
Flint for the win. Way to go PBOT, that detour is the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a while. EVERYONE will detour to Flint.
that left turn onto Flint is gonna be a doozy
Oof, looks like its going to be a rough summer for popular cycling routes, commuting and recreational routes alike.
Maybe there should be a major north-south bike lane on NE 7th for people in NE wanting to get to the Steel Bridge.
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/693408
Maybe it is also time to upgrade Interstate Ave bike lanes and complete the bike lanes on Skidmore between Michigan and 7th so people living in North Portland have some better options
Usually I save this comment for arguments on Next Door, but; get rid of every parking space in Interstate.
Wait, so can we still take a right at Russell and get onto Flint?
Suppose we’ll find out soon.
Oh what’s a few months of closure? Portland put a permanent closure of the black community in this part of town decades ago an no body batted an eye.
Not an accurate assessment.
Ok, right, just dropped a freeway trench, a big hospital and an arena on it, but who’s counting?
It’s the “no on batted an eye” comment that I take issue with. It’s hyperbolic. There was opposition from many groups, but they were ignored.
The N Michigan greenway is also an option, for those living west of Vancouver who don’t want to risk Interstate, you will have to jog over to Mississippi for I block then head down the hill to Interstate.
This option makes the most sense but unfortunately most of N Michigan is in horrible shape. It was probably due for resurfacing over a decade ago. For some reason lots of the greenways in N Portland have the same issue (don’t even get me started on the condition of the Bryant st greenway).
That detour is a bit incomplete. Putting bikes on NE 2nd, a road that only exists for 6 blocks, strikes me as a “that’ll do” solution. If you’re traveling to the esplanade (which is my one and only use for that stretch of Vancouver) the listed detour either puts you in a section of town that doesn’t connect to it, thanks to I-5, or encourages you to make a left turn against 5 lanes of moving traffic on Broadway.
No thanks, I’ll find my own way and hope someday you plan your detours for actual humans.
2nd Ave. is a bike route, and the most low key/least conflict route in this area. It has bicycle infastructure to get you across all major intersections. It connects you to Broadway (which features bike lane going west), Weidler (which has bike lane going East, and snakes around to 3rd via Wasco to connect to Multnomah (which sports a nice bike lane going west). You should try it, I ride that way daily!
Looks that way, and I hope we’re right!