On Tuesday, the Portland Bureau of Transportation announced they plan to move forward with a major project that will improve safety conditions on Northeast Cully Blvd/NE 57th Ave. The $8.4 million Cully/57th Complete Street Project will improve sidewalks, build about 0.6 miles of new protected bike lanes, add new crossings, and fully rebuild a traffic signal. The scope of the project is from NE Prescott to NE Klickitat.
This project was awarded a $7.6 million federal grant disbursed via Metro back in 2022. Just last March BikePortland reported that that funding was at risk of being pulled back by the Trump Administration. I’ve asked PBOT to clarify the status of that portion of the funding and will update this post when I hear back.
The good news is that PBOT is confident enough in the funding (the project also utilizes a $874,000 grant from the Portland Clean Energy Fund) to move forward with the public outreach and design process.
This stretch of Cully/57th is notorious for being a dangerous place to walk and bike. PBOT says it has narrow or missing sidewalks, crossing gaps, and a lack of physical protection for bicycle riders. Between 2010 and 2019 there were 20 reported crashes within the project area. 14 of those involved people walking or biking, including one fatality. In that timeframe six drivers were seriously injured in crashes.
As an illustration of the problems on this street, you might recall my reporting in late 2023 about how drivers had uprooted over a dozen flex delineator posts from the curve. PBOT ultimately repaired that damage and now they want to come back and finish the job once and for all.
Here’s what PBOT says we can expect this project to deliver:
- Improve the pedestrian facility on the west side of NE 57th Ave between NE Fremont Shaver streets
- Widen the sidewalk on the east side between NE Fremont and Failing streets.
- Enhanced crossings near NE Failing and Skidmore streets.
- Improved bike lanes between NE Klickitat and Prescott streets to provide better separation from cars.
- Transit stop enhancements at NE Mason Street to improve access and transit reliability.
- Accessibility upgrades between NE Fremont and Prescott streets.
- Full traffic signal reconstruction at NE Fremont Street to replace outdated equipment and improve safety.
PBOT will attend the November 18th meeting of the Cully Association of Neighbors to introduce the project and we can expect more public outreach once they complete a preliminary design concept. This project is estimated to be completed by 2028. Check out the project website for more information.
Thanks for reading.
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Oof, I hope they don’t reuse the design already built N. of Prescott.
That parking lane with the continuous drive-way style ramp is supposed to be a bike lane?1?!?????
The original late 1990s project called for continuous sidewalks and protected bike facilities, but it got delayed by 15 years and lost over 33% of the value of the funds just from inflation, so they cut back on the project, value-engineered it (i.e. built it cheap), and only added painted bike lanes. Now the lost value is being made up 25+ years later with another project which will likely get delayed again.
It’s always the cemetery frontages that leave a lot to be desired, isn’t it? Looking forward to what improvements the project can bring to Cully where it meets 57th.
Something more is certainly needed, that stretch there where cully curves as it turns into 57th consistently sees massive damage to the guardrail and cemetary fences when drivers go right through the flexposts and bike lane and slam into the guardrail and fence. The flexposts honestly make me feel less safe because so many of them are damaged that it is obvious that cars regularly enter the bike lane. As someone else noted the design north of prescott doesn’t work that well because cars often just park on the “protected” bike lane as there is no curb to prevent them from doing so. The bike lane by Bison coffee also suffers from this currently and is frequently blocked by the Portland Fire Bureau who for some reason think it is fine to park their fire engine in the bike lane rather than walk 20 extra steps. Hopefully whatever they do here will involve something closer to a jersey barrier to prevent people from driving into the bike lane and will also be cleaned somewhat regularly.
Damage to flexposts seems like an incredibly obvious metric for any data-driven organization to track but usually they’re installed and ignored forever after.
I’m pretty sure most are being destroyed by careless driving rather than emergency responders. It’s unfortunate that infrastructure more likely to discourage careless/negligent driving by damaging vehicles is also likely to seriously injure cyclists.
Good news. I avoid Cully Ave even though there’s some nice businesses (Bison and Grind with Tryz, plus those food carts on the corner of Prescott and Cully) that are located there. Dealing with trying to walk or bike Cully Ave just isn’t worth the hassle when you’ve got the businesses on Fremont and Alberta nearby.