Transportation Commission Announces Brown Road, other TE/OBPAC Funding

At their Wednesday meeting, the Oregon Transportation Commission approved Salem's request for $610,000 for sidewalks and bike lanes on Brown Road.

Brown Road:  No sidewalks or bike lanes

It's an odd little project. First off, it's legacy remediation of a substandard road.  It's a standard 1980s solution. But more interesting is the small scope of the project and request. You can see sidewalks and bike lanes missing from most of Brown Road, but the City chose not to request the full $3.3 million that project was estimated to need.

TE/OBPAC funding for short section of Brown Rd
to construct sidewalks, gutters, and bike lanes -
the southern section to Sunnyview was too expensive

ODOT funded a total of $8.6 million.  From the blurb:

The Oregon Transportation Commission this week approved the recommended list of eleven bicycle/pedestrian and transportation alternatives (formerly transportation enhancement) projects for $8.6 million. ODOT originally received 155 applications for the Transportation Enhancement-Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee 2012 Combined Solicitation. After review by the joint advisory committees, 62 applications moved into "stage 2" evaluations. Field review and public comment helped winnow the applications to 50, requesting a total of $48 million, for final ranking by the committees. With the OTC's approval, these projects become part of the 2012 – 2015 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) and can be scheduled for construction.

Transportation Alternatives and Oregon Pedestrian & Bicycle Program Funding Awards

• Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail: Warren Crk - Lindsay Crk - $1,002,000
• OC&E Woods Line State Trail: Crossing Safety Improvements - $313,000
• US 101: 7th Street - Ocean View Drive Sidewalk & Bike Lanes (Yachats) - $1,040,000
• Hagg Lake - McMinnville Rail-to-Trail Corridor Acquisition - $1,400,000
• Empire Blvd: Fulton Ave - Wisconsin Ave Sidewalk & Bike Lanes (Coos Bay) -  $1,387,200
• 9th Street & Walnut Blvd. Pedestrian Crossings (Corvallis) - $293,000
• Ivy Street Sidewalk Connection @ UP Railroad Crossing (Gervais) - $304,000
• Bear Creek Greenway: Highway 62 Connection (Medford) - $ 449,500
• OR 99 @ Oak St: South Couplet Sidewalk & Pedestrian Crossing (Phoenix) - $ 294,000
• N. Williams Ave: Broadway - Killingsworth Bike & Ped Safety (Portland) - $1,471,000
• Brown Rd NE: Carolina Ave - San Francisco Ave Sidewalk/Bike Lanes (Salem) - $610,000

The Portland North Williams Avenue project may sound "pedestrian" as a "safety" project, but it is quite interesting as a major bike-oriented development and bikeway project.  The bike-oriented Hopworks Bikebar is located there, for example.   It is far from legacy remediation and according to BikePortland contains

a 10-foot wide buffered bike lane that will run on the left side of the street; 11 curb extensions at eight different intersections; a new signal at N. Cook St; and a public art installation that will, "honor N Williams Avenue's importance in local African-American history." The project will also include funding to install speed bumps and other safety measures on NE Rodney (a parallel, neighborhood street preferred by many people who don't like the crowds on Williams).

The size and ambition of Salem's project is all too telling at the moment.

$8 million in planning already spent could have built
a lot of sidewalks and bikelanes by now