Winter-Maple Greenway, 25th and State: ODOT Project Scoping at MWACT

The Mid-Willamette Valley Area Commission on Transportation meets on Thursday, and they'll be seeing a preliminary list of projects for State funding in the 2021-2024 cycle.

There's not a lot of information here, and once they get farther along and SKATS takes a look at them, there might be more to say. It's also not exactly clear how far along they are in the scoping process and how many projects (or how much dollar value) will fall out as the vetting continues.

Still, there are three projects being scoped that would significantly help walking and biking in Salem.

25th & State (the spreadsheet is not a very clear scan)

The project for 25th and State "includes median island on west leg of intersection to improve visibility of pedestrians; realigning crosswalk on east leg...; upgrading ADA facilities...extending left turn pocket for westbound to southbound movement..."

The crosswalk improvements would be helpful. You might remember neighborhood advocacy on this intersection even before the State Street Study kicked off. At the same time, because the Study embraced the "hybrid" plan rather than a full 4/3 Safety Conversion, the engineering and design for this project will be different than it would have been under the 4/3 conversion, and it is even possible that the four-lane cross section will be locked in.

That's just something to monitor.

Commercial St between D & Union

The Commercial Street project from D street to Union Street includes new bike lanes, in an area that has lacked them.

That's also at the new UGM/Police facilities.

Winter-Maple Greenway package

The project on Cherry Avenue at the Parkway includes "pedestrian refuge islands," a "bike signal" at the intersection with Auto Group Way, and a "separated bike boulevard between Auto Group Way NE and Salem Parkway," all part of the Winter-Maple Greenway package.