Back in October I shared the news that the Portland Bureau of Transportation had their eyes on a major redesign of Northeast Cully Blvd/57th Ave. Now we have a much better idea what they’d like to do with the $8.5 million investment.
For the 0.6-mile section of Cully/57th between NE Prescott (Albertsons) and Klickitat (a neighborhood greenway), PBOT wants to install; protected bike lanes, some sections of wider sidewalks, ADA curb ramps, crossing upgrades with median islands, better bus stops, and one full signal rebuild. The goal of the project is to slow driving speeds, make it safer and more welcoming for bikers and walkers, and create a more functional transportation facility that neighbors can be proud of.
For a better understanding of what could change, check out the before/after graphics below:
Today, this stretch of Cully/57th is pretty typical and outdated. It varies in overall, curb-to-curb width, but there’s mostly just painted bike lanes, wide driving lanes without much visual obstruction (like street trees or parked cars, which can help traffic calming). According to PBOT data, more than 75% of all drivers in the project area break the speed limit of 25 mph — and about 14 percent of them are going over 35 mph. Given those behaviors, it’s not a shock that the curved section where the bike lane is “protected” (NE Failing to Fremont), PBOT has had a hard time keeping the plastic wands in the ground because (distracted? careless? speeding? apathetic?) drivers slam into them.
Another reason this location is a priority for investment is its crash history. PBOT says there were 114 crashes in the project area between 2014 and 2023 — 87 of which resulted in injuries. 11 of those injuries were serious and one person trying to cross at NE Mason (in 2019) died after being hit by a driver. Of the seven pedestrians injured, PBOT says five were in marked crosswalks when they were hit. At NE 57th and Fremont alone there were 32 documented crashes in that nine-year period.
So what is PBOT going to do about it? Here’s a list of the what’s coming (as shared on the project open house website):
- Two new enhanced pedestrian crossings in the vicinity of NE Failing and Skidmore streets
- Widened sidewalk on the east side of NE 57th Avenue between Failing and Fremont streets
- New sidewalk or enhanced walkway on the west side of NE 57th Avenue between Shaver and Fremont streets
- Protected bike lanes along most of the corridor between NE Prescott and Klickitat streets
- Accessible bus stop improvements at NE Mason Street
- New or improved accessible curb-ramps between NE Prescott and Fremont streets
- Rebuilt traffic signal at NE Fremont Street, including new left turn pockets on Fremont and dedicated left turn phases for all left turns
As you can see in the before/after graphics, one block of the new protected bike lane — northbound between NE Milton and NE Fremont — will be elevated onto a widened sidewalk. PBOT plans to remove the space currently used for car parking and reallocate it to the wider sidewalk/bikeway.
(Because it’s a federally-funded project and requires an environmental review and more red tape than a locally-funded project) PBOT plans to begin construction of this project in 2027 and it will be completed by 2028. Note that this design is still under review and is not set in stone. Some elements could change before they break ground.
Learn more about the project and the recommended design at the online open house and be sure to take the survey at the end. Below is an annotated map of PBOT’s design.
Thanks for reading.
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Dang look at that some parking protected bike lanes!
They appear to have curbs separating the parking and bike lane too, which is big! I notice a lot of drivers park almost all the way in the bike when it is a paint-only parking zone. It’s good for traffic speeds if cars are parked in the right place too; drivers tend to give lots of consideration and space to those precious parked cars.
IKR, PBOT on a roll!
For most of the project the houses are facing the side streets so on-street parking is rarely used, but I can see some probable resistance from the residents between Fremont and Klickitat.
Well, there’s only 7 houses that face 57th on that block and they all have driveways.
8.5 million for .6 miles. It seems like there must be a better way.
Keep in mind most of the cost is likely toward pouring/widening sidewalks, curb ramps, refuge islands, bus ramps, etc. It’s more a pedestrian project than anything else.
Also the traffic control, staging, and all that. I’m sure it would be cheaper if they could just close the whole street for a week and bang it out but that’s not really tenable for a number of reasons.
I support the project but I look at this price tag and agree completely. As a nation it’s hugely problematic that the US is amongst the most expensive, if not the most expensive nation to build road in per mile.
I think this when intl. traveling. “this must have cost ONE TRILLION DOLLARS to create!” Or it’s just so much cheaper for other cities to do far more impressive stuff all over the place. What’s our problem?
Also, stormwater management is massively expensive. When you change where curbs are or build new ones, you have to change the system used to manage stormwater.
The biggest cost is “moving the sewers” to widen the sidewalks between Failing and Fremont – digging up the street pretty deep and shifting pipe – I’m afraid it’s expensive everywhere in the USA, even here in cheap non-union NC. If the city substituted candlesticks and those cleated curbs that cars easily roll over for the concrete curbs the city would save a lot of money, but there would be nearly no added safety for bicyclists. Given the $8.5 million price tag and federal requirements, my guess is that PBOT will contact out much of the work rather than do it in-house.
They’re widening the sidewalks into the road, which is very expensive because you need to move all the inlets and pipes. But it’s still probably cheaper than acquiring property and widening in the other direction, given that those are shallow lots and have houses pretty close the existing sidewalk, not to mention the commercial building right up against the sidewalk just north of Fremont, and the electrical substation a couple blocks north of that which I assume they can’t even touch.
Can’t come soon enough. There was a pedestrian involved crash at Klickitat and 57th just a few days ago in the middle of the afternoon.
I ride that intersection frequently, and it feels very unsafe when it’s dark or traffic volumes are high. I think it’s not included in the project scope though, it looks like it ends right before the crossing.
This looks great.
I am excited for the way this will change the bike lane south of fremont, currently it gets very narrow near the southern edge of Fire on the Mountain and drivers tend to park in the bike lane blocking it at that point. I hope the redesign really will feature a wider bicycle lane and use concrete to prevent motor vehicle parking.
Parking protected with a nice buffer to prevent dooring, this should be the template all over the city!
This is good fix to a shitty connection to multiple bike facilities.
PBOT should also install curbs on the dumb curbless Cully fake-cycletrack from Prescott to Killingsworth.
Ugh yeah. Eeeesh. I was trying not to think about that. I’m not sure it’s really fixable without a major redesign.
It’s funny to think about how 10 or 15 years ago, that Cully cycle-track was always touted as some kind of “world-class” design, and now we can all see it for what it is, basically a concrete bike lane that occasionally is parking protected but for the most part is nearly flush with the road and doesn’t feel “protected” for most of the distance.
I know quick-fixes are not “cool” but PBOT could easily bolt on some cheap plastic curbs to create a better barrier.
In the long run, I think we also need some sort of accountability process that addresses PBOT’s propensity to build dumb experimental bike/ped safety infrastructure (e.g. how do we create processes that results in PBOT using proven standard vs experimentation).
O. M. G. What!? This looks great! My friends in the Cully neighborhood and I have been talking about needing improvements on these stretches for years. I am pinching myself to calm down, trying to remember that these designs are preliminary, basically wish lists, but I don’t want to fall into thinking that something as good as this could not happen here! Let’s do it, PBoT!