City Council, August 14th - Crosswalks for 25th and State

In addition to the continuation of the appeal on proposed apartments in West Salem, the other big matter will be the payroll tax. Others have had good things to say!

Of more particular interest here is a report on five lots impacted with construction and small permanent easements necessary for the intersection work on 25th & State. The project includes 

construction of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant ramps, one ADA-compliant driveway, installation of a cut-through median island, modification and extension of an existing median island, installation of street lighting, and signal improvements.

State St between 24th and 25th

The intersection is marked 25th on the map above. Though it's a dog-leg with a segment of 25th on the north side, the work is only on the section with existing crosswalks in line with the segment on the south side. A second dog-leg with 24th is also marked, but there is no work there. This part of State Street is five auto lanes wide, one of them a continuous center turn lane, and at 24th transitions to four auto travel lanes without a turn lane.

See previously:

• "Old, Kludgy Intersection of 25th and State at NEN Tomorrow" (2015)
• "Winter-Maple Greenway, 25th and State: ODOT Project Scoping at MWACT" (2018)
  

Something to note is that this would be the transition to a 4/3 safety conversion if we can get there.

Evaluating the 4/3 safety conversion (April 2018)

Back in April of 2018, Staff indicated "a commitment" to "evaluate the lane reconfiguration west of 17th a year and a half after it is constructed" in order to see if the 4/3 conversion between 13th and 17th can be extended to 24th. That lane reconfiguration is in the bond project list, but is still a ways off, to be funded in the second or third tranche, and not in the current funded one.

The City claimed that "implementation of the proposed 'hybrid' street design [leaving four lanes at 24th] will not preclude a future conversion [to three lanes at 24th]."

It will be very interesting to see the final design to see how well it meshes with a future 4/3 conversion at 24th. 

It is a little disappointing that any conversion was not envisioned to end at 25th instead of 24th, however.

Speaking of the bond, Council will get a brief update on the bond projects. The bit on the Pringle Creek Path only says that it's tentatively planned for 2028. The Staff Report is silent on any difficulty or success with the railroad, however. 

There did not seem to be any other items to note in the Staff Report.

Roll out that photo speed enforcement!

The summary of the Legislative Session from the City's lobbyist includes notes that the City will be able to conduct photo speed enforcement and also exercise more local speed-setting, cuing up "Twenty is Plenty" kinds of programming.

It also notes that the bills for Streetcar study, WES commuter rail study, and the Son of SRC "bridge district" all died. It does not appear that City priorities to fund Peace Plaza work or stabilize the bluffs over south River Road were met. The Staff Report talks around this a little, oddly. There is not in fact a good summary of City priorities directly tied to success/failure of bills, and then a prospective list for 2024. The absence of this extract suggests the overall success of City priorities was not very great in this session. (Which with the nullification efforts by one party is not surprising.)

Salem Reporter talked some about Councilor Nishioka's revision, a friendly amendment I hope (but perhaps not!), of Councilor Nordyke's motion for a Town Hall, and may not have given sufficient attention to Councilor Nishioka's notion to have only three Councilors in each meeting so as not to have a quorum. Under Councilor Nordyke's concept for four Councilors, if the Mayor attended there would be a quorum. That seems like a significant detail, and the adjustment a definite improvement in Councilor Nishioka's plan. It is interesting that Councilor Nordyke did not pull her motion and throw support behind Councilor Nishioka's.