When completed, the new SW Capitol Highway will have 27-feet of space for walking and rolling and 24-feet of space for driving.
(Concept drawing of intersection looking southbound.)

The Bureau of Transportation has issued a major update to the plans for a project that will add a protected lane for vulnerable road users on a one-mile section of SW Capitol Highway between Multnomah Village and Barbur Blvd.
[Read more…]

(Drawings: PBOT)

The City’s SW Capitol Highway Project — which will build a new bikeway between Multnomah Village and Taylors Ferry Road (Barbur Blvd) is finally getting underway and there’s an open house tonight (11/29).

This is the project the community rallied to help save from a veto threat from Governor Kate Brown back in August. Brown planned to axe $2 million from the project’s estimated price tag of $10-15 million. The project is being done jointly with the Bureau of Environmental Services due to stormwater management upgrades that are also needed.

At tonight’s open house PBOT staff will give a short presentation at 6:30 pm and will be available to answer your questions.

PBOT is showing two different cross-sections that will be used in the 1.1 mile stretch of road. One is above in the lead photo and here’s the other one:

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And here are the major project elements (taken from PBOT’s website):

PBOT estimates completion of this project by Fall 2019.

The southern terminus of this project is Taylors Ferry Road, but advocates and planners want it to connect all the way to existing bike lanes on Barbur Blvd. To do this, the project must navigate through a tricky series of large intersections partially controlled by the Oregon Department of Transportation and known as the “Crossroads”. PBOT is using that $2 million in state funding (from House Bill 5006) to separate out the Crossroads portion of the project, “in order to get continuous sidewalks and bike lanes to Barbur Blvd.” Construction of this portion of the project isn’t expected to begin until 2020 “at the earliest” (coordination with the proposed SW Corridor light rail project is likely one culprit for the delay).

Get all the details of tonight’s open house and learn more about the project at PBOT’s website.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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We did it!

You raised your voices. Oregon Governor Kate Brown heard them. And she has changed her mind.

The Governor just announced she will not go through with her threatened veto of over $2 million in funding for the SW Capitol Highway project. The project will build a crucial biking and walking connection between Multnomah Village and Taylors Ferry Road that the neighborhood has worked for since 1991.

Here’s the official word via a letter from the Governor’s office (full PDF of the letter here):
[Read more…]

With 36-feet of unused right-of-way, advocates like Roger Averbeck say this portion of SW Capitol Hwy should have a dedicated bikeway.
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

This post is part of our Southwest Portland Week.

For a quarter-century now, neighborhood activists have been pushing to make SW Capitol Highway a nicer place to live, walk, and bike. Yesterday I joined up with local resident and Southwest Neighborhoods Inc Transportation Committee Chair Roger Averbeck for a closer look.[Read more…]

The Stedman family — Helena (5), Barbara, and Ken — getting started on their day.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Helena Stedman doesn’t fit the stereotype of a Portland bike commuter. At just five years old, she’d rather talk about kindergarten than bike lanes and her most prized bike accessory is her favorite stuffed elephant.

[Read more…]