NEWS
August 2008
The Southwest Portland Post • 3
BES ditches to swales program not a substitute for sidewalks
By Polina Olsen
The Southwest Portland Post
Jeff Hubbard didn’t know he’d need
survival skills when he walked to his
mailbox each day. But over the three
years he and his wife have lived on
Maplewood Road, traffi c has only be-
come worse. “People use Maplewood
Road as a bypass for 45th and don’t pay
attention to the school zone,” he said,
adding through traffi c regularly zooms
past his house at 45 mph despite speed
bumps and 25 mph signs.
“A bus got so close to my wife when
she was getting the mail that the wind
from it knocked her over,” Hubbard
said. “Kids walk up and down the
street, and there are skateboards. It’s a
question of time until someone is hit.”
Vernon Krist, Maplewood Neighbor-
hood Association transportation chair
agrees. “Maplewood Road is narrow
-- barely wide enough for two cars.
People drive too fast and there’s no
place to walk,” he said. “If cars come
along, pedestrians need to jump into
a ditch.”
The ditches Krist referred to butt up
against the hill which runs along one
side of Maplewood Road. Built to col-
lect water, the neighborhood associa-
tion has long hoped the city’s “Ditch-
to-Swale” program would convert the
space to a pedestrian trail.
“They take a roadside ditch and fi ll
it with piping and rock so the drain-
age takes place and gives people a safe
place to walk,” Krist explained. The
solution does not narrow the road, but
rather turns the curbside ditch into
pedestrian space at a fraction of the
cost of sidewalks. The city estimate for
the Maplewood Road Ditch-to-Swale
conversion is $34,000.
While this sounds like a good idea, it
may not be a quick solution. According
to Amin Wahab, watershed manager for
the Bureau of Environmental Services
(BES), Maplewood Road is medium
priority on the list of Ditch-to-Swale
projects. And, he said the budget for
even high priority projects “will not
kick in for three years. Then, it depends
on how much money the city has al-
located.”
Furthermore, Amin explained, “a
swale is not a trail. The [Ditch-to-Swale]
objective is storm water management
not to create sidewalks. We can make
some modifi cations and do the design
in a way to make pedestrian access
easier but that’s not one of the main
objectives.”
Despite this, the
project could speed
up, Amin suggests, if
“neighbors approach
BES and the Portland
Department of Trans-
portation to say this
should be given a
higher priority- es-
pecially if the neigh-
bors are interested
in providing some
support.”
Meanwhile, Jeff
Hubbard prepares to
jump into the ditch
whenever he ven-
tures down his road.
He hopes attention
will speed up the
Ditch-to-Swale con-
version or at least
encourage police or
radar control to moni- A recently converted ditch on Southwest Hamilton Street just
west of 42nd Place. (Photo courtesy Victor von Salza)
tor traffic. “This is
a neighborhood of
kids,” he said. “With a community
portlandonline.com/bes and type in
like this, you’d like to make the school
“ditches to swales” in the search box. To
zone safe.
contact Vernon Krist at the Maplewood
For more information about the
Neighborhood Association email trans-
Ditches to Swales program visit www.
portation_chair@maplewoodna.com.
South Waterfront Greenway
construction delayed
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
Construction of the central portion of
the South Waterfront Greenway will be
delayed until at least next summer.
Portland Parks and Recreation
spokesperson Patty Freeman reported
that the bureau had failed to properly
complete the complex permitting pro-
cess of the National Marine Fisheries
Service, whose regulations govern con-
struction near the shores of waterways
such as the Willamette River that are
fi sh habitat.
In such habitat work can only be done
between July 1 and October 31, and it
is already too late to obtain the permits
in time to meet this deadline. Thus, the
$4.3 million project will have to wait
until at least next year for implementa-
tion.
The effect of the delay? Freeman said
that the park bureau is calculating an
eight percent cost increase due to infl a-
tions, “In a slower development market,
contractors will frequently lower their
bids in an attempt to get work.”
Some community members have
faulted the park bureau staff for failure
to deal with the permitting in a time-
line manner. One observer, requesting
anonymity, told The Post, “They’ve
known for years they’d have to deal
with this.”
Freeman said that the permitting
process contained a new procedure for
sediment testing. The park bureau was
trying to balance federal guidelines
calling for minimal use or riprap with
a need to give the public access to the
riverfront (without which they might
not respect habitat areas.
Finally, there were delays in the trans-
fer of land to the City by the developers.
The Park Bureau is confi dent the work
can be done in 2009, she said.
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