This summer, the Portland Bureau of Transportation will break ground on the most exciting bike infrastructure project we’ve seen in many years. On Wednesday PBOT released 100% design plans for the North Willamette Active Transportation Corridor Project that make it crystal clear just how transformative the changes will be for this vital connection to and from St. Johns.
The $6 million federally-funded project will come with a significant update to the bike lanes and road profile of a three mile stretch of N Willamette Blvd between N Rosa Parks Way and N Richmond. PBOT plans to add concrete curbs to protect the bike lane, establish prohibitions on driver turning movements and lane access at key intersections, extend median islands to reduce traffic exposure for bicycle riders and walkers, add speed bumps, and make a host of other safety and traffic calming-related changes.
100% design plans aren’t final or exactly what we’ll see on the ground, but they’re very close. Close enough for PBOT to put the project out for bid so they can break ground this summer. With the release of new documents on Wednesday, PBOT has given us even more detailed visualizations and plans than the 60% plans they shared in March of last year. Along with the plan drawings, they’ve shared narrative explanations of several key changes at specific intersections.
Below is what we’ve learned thanks to an annotated map of the full corridor design…
Driver speeds on Willamette are likely to come way down thanks to 41 new “fire-friendly speed cushions” being installed along the three-mile stretch.
PBOT will debut a new design of their bike lane curbs. Instead of a symmetrical profile with bevels on both sides like the currently used curbs, the new design will have a squared-off profile on the drivers’ side. The total height looks a bit shorter (although I’m not sure about that), but the drivers’ side will now be a sharper 4-inches high instead of a 2-inch height with a bevel.
Starting from the southern end, PBOT plans to make big changes to the Rosa Parks Way intersection. They’ll widen the road, add concrete curbs to protect the bike lane for the entirety of the curve, separate the southbound bike lane completely from the road, and add more robust medians to calm car users and limit their turning movements.
Where N Willamette intersects with N Oatman/Liberty and N Vincent/Saratoga, new large concrete medians will reduce the width of expansive intersections by about 80%.
At the N Bryant/Wabash neighborhood greenway intersection, PBOT will add bus islands, prohibit car drivers from using N Wabash and add several islands and new crossings to tame traffic and invite more walking and bicycling.
At N Chautauqua, PBOT will tighten corner radii to force drivers to slow down. They will also add concrete curbs to the centerline to prevent impatient car users from passing stopped buses and other vehicles (such as folks turning left from Willamette to Chautauqua). This is a huge improvement that is badly needed because man drivers currently dive into the bike lane whenever a driver or bus operator slows or stops at Chautauqua.
At N Woolsey (Columbia Park), PBOT will use more concrete curb dividers to prevent dangerous lane changes. And they’ll take it one step further with a new ban on left turns from Willamette to Woolsey. For drivers going south on Woolsey, they will be forced to only turn right (west) onto Willamette. This is being done due to make movement more predictable and prevent what PBOT says has been a “cluster of crashes” at the intersection in recent years.
At the intersection with N Harvard (just before University of Portland curve), PBOT will raise the bike lane up (similar to NE Couch at Burnside Bridge approach) because lanes are too narrow for concrete curbs. Just after N Harvard, PBOT will prohibit drivers from accessing Willamette from N Olin and force all car traffic to use Harvard.
At the entrance to University of Portland near N Haven Ave, PBOT will remove one of the two southbound lanes. “Traffic modeling showed right turn lane not necessary for traffic flow and it increases risk to pedestrian crossing so it will be removed,” PBOT says.
On the bridge over the railroad (“the cut”) between N Carey and N Ida, PBOT says they cannot install concrete curbs to protect the bike lane due to bridge weight restrictions. So they’ll install plastic wands and curbs instead.
At the northbound bike lane onto N Ida (Fred Meyer, Roosevelt High School), they’ll raise the bike lane (similar to NE Couch curve). Also at N Ida, going southbound, PBOT will remove the left turn lane, improve the bus stop and add crosswalks.
I told you it was exciting!
PBOT is so proud of their designs they’re offering two online “webinar-style walkthroughs” (January 22nd and 23rd) for anyone who wants to learn more. You can sign up for those on the project website.
Construction on this project should start this summer and is expected to take 12 months to complete.
Thanks for reading.
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Meanwhile, the Halsey 68th to 92nd Ave Improvement Project continues to be continually kicked to the next construction season. I’m not salty, you’re salty!
I’ve heard tell it’s actually the railroad that’s holding the project up over some sort of right-of-way issue, but I’ve never seen anything official on that. Maybe something to put on your story list, Jonathan?
I hear you Michael. You may be talking about the under-crossing near Gateway Green. RRs are notoriously difficult when acquiring ROW.
I cannot be more excited about this, especially the news of the new curb profile! Quick correction: the intersection of Willamette and Wabash is with N Bryant, not N Holman.
Off the charts level of hype for these upgrades. This project is going to be such a big improvement to the experience of being on N Willamette outside a car – and to safety for everyone. I know we talk about problems a lot, but it feels good to celebrate a pretty solid win.
Most of these changes looks great! I have been waiting for this for a long time. The Rosa Parks/Willamette Intersection seems like a bad design, I would like to hear more of an explanation:
1) Why widen the road around this corner? It does not change the driving geometry to slow cars, it is likely to impact the existing Oak tree on the southwest corner of the intersection, and it introduces a bunch of unused space. Could this unused spaced space be used for 3-4 new street trees (Oregon White Oaks)?
2) The large buffer created by the road widening routes cyclist through, instead or around, the pedestrian crossing zone which is an unnecessary conflict. Many/most cyclist continue down Willamette here rather than continuing on Rosa Parks and the proposed design seems very poor for that movement.
3) Could construct the center median on Rosa Parks using 2 parallel curbs that leaves a 5′-6′ center strip of asphalt for westbound cyclists to use to make a left on to Willamette?
Has PBOT considered using the Toronto style barriers that Seattle is now using?
Very exciting. And would you look at those bus stops. Great use of the space. Kudos PBOT!