Thursday, July 7, 2016

Bike Boulevard Crossing Projects Continue to Advance for Funding in 2018-2021

Our local Area Commission on Transportation meets today, Thursday the 7th, and the Salem proposal for several enhanced crossings, including two for the the Winter-Maple Bike Boulevard route, one of them for an intersection where Caroline Storm was killed last year, continues to make progress as it is vetted for funding in the 2018-2021 cycle. (But other than a kind of progress report and check-in, there's nothing of great consequence on the agenda for us here.)

Five Crossing Safety Projects
Project estimate is now at $380,000
The crossing safety projects rank in a tie for third in the current scoring and looks to be funded. (Note the green and red scoring.)

Current rankings
At the top of the list is the Hayesville Drive NE project outside of Salem proper in unincorporated Marion County.

Hayesville Sidewalks and Bike Lanes
Some replacement buses for Cherriots also made the cut, but since the list is at present a 150% list, it seems likely a project or two will get cut later on. (On the other hand, the total statewide funding pot got increased by $5 million, from $30 to $35 million - so maybe not.) The "SuperACT" for Region 2 will meet in August to make the final recommendations.

At today's meeting the committee will have a final chance to adjust the rankings to feed into the SuperACT meeting and ranking. Hopefully there will be no surprises at least with #1 and #3!

Look for the historic sign
next to the entry
For more about the Enhance cycle in 2018-2021, see all notes here. ODOT's page is here.

MWACT meets Thursday the 7th at 3:30pm. It meets at MWVCOG/SKATS at 100 High St. SE, Suite 200, above Andaluz Kitchen and Table Five 08.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to correct the information in the post. No funding awards have been made yet. The table showing the projects are the priority order as determined by MWACT, but the green and red coloring has no connection to which projects have been funded yet. Excuse us if it gave you that impression.

A little background: when the projects were submitted to ODOT in January, there was a total of 22 projects from the four Area Commissions on Transportation (ACTs) that are within ODOT Region 2, with a total of $19.3 million in requested funds. Since January, ODOT has reviewed each project and updated their cost estimates(the revised "scoping costs" were shared at the July MWACT meeting). Also, in March the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) added $5 million to the Non-Highway Enhance Fund, making the statewide total $35 million. Region 2's share of the fund will be about $10.6 million.

The projects in the MWACT area and the projects from the other three ACTs will be reviewed again in August when the chairs and vice-chairs of the four ACTs meet to develop a final funding recommendation for the $10.6 million available. After that, the next step is to take those recommendations to the OTC.

Mike Jaffe
Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments

Anonymous said...

Region 2 shared the final recommendations that will go to the Oregon Transportation Commission. Here are the three projects within MWACT recommended for funding (amounts are state or federal funds and don't include local match):

Hayesville Dr. Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvements (Marion County) - $2,647,035
Salem Multi-modal Safety Crossing (City of Salem) - $508,051
Bus Replacements (Yamhill County Transit Area) - $707,072

Mike Jaffe
MWVCOG