INSIDE:
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Burlingame • Capitol Hill
• Garden Home
• Glen Cullen • Hillsdale
• Multnomah Village
• Raleigh Hills • South Portland
• Vermont Hills
• West Portland
Celebrating 20 years of continuous Southwest news coverage!
Volume No. 21, Issue No. 4
www.swportlandpost.com
Portland, Oregon
Police arrest
burglary suspect in
Maplewood
neighborhood
– Page 3
Complimentary
February 2013
Vermont Street sidewalks to be
upgraded from 30th to 37th avenues
HILLSDALE NOTEBOOK
By Jillian Daley
The Southwest Portland Post
PBOT project manager Kyle Chisek
shared details with the Hillsdale NA
on a $2.2 million proposed project that
includes upgrades to the sidewalks on
Southwest Vermont Street from 30th to
37th avenues.
Chisek also described improvements
to the stormwater system at several
intersections: Southwest Idaho Drive
and Vermont Street; Vermont Street
and Capitol Highway; Terwilliger Bou-
levard, Seventh Avenue and Caldew
Drive; and Terwilliger Boulevard, Sixth
Avenue and Chestnut Street.
Construction should not be done
until a neighborhood issue is settled,
said HNA board member Don Baack,
also chairman of SW Trails, a group
that promotes walking and biking in
Southwest.
The neighborhood association sub-
mitted a letter to the Mayor’s office
saying that HNA would prefer a dif-
ferent location for the signal Home
Forward (the housing authority serv-
ing Multnomah County) has proposed
at 26th Avenue, Vermont Street and
Capitol Highway.
This is the site of a new entrance for
Stephens Creek Crossing, Home For-
ward’s planned housing development.
The letter says the new signal should
be at Southwest 25th Avenue, Vermont
Street and Capitol Highway [near
Fanno Creek Clinic].
Baack said the latter site would re-
duce bike crashes and accommodate
heavy traffic on Vermont Street. Motor-
ists “don’t see them; they pull out in
front of the bikes,” he said.
Baack’s motion failed. Chisek said
the proposed improvements would
not impede the installation of a signal
regardless of location.
HNA chairman Mikal Apenes said
the neighborhood should not stop
proposed construction because it is an
opportunity to overhaul infrastructure,
and neighbors will pursue the signal
issue in the future.
During his SW Trails presentation,
Portland Bureau of Transportation project manager Kyle Chisek presented information
on some upcoming projects at the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association meeting last
month. (Post photo by Jillian Daley)
Baack said there is a gap in the bike
path on Terwilliger between Chestnut
and Barbur, and that gap should be
filled.
Baack moved that the HNA write the
Portland City Council, Bureau of Trans-
portation and Portland Parks & Recre-
ation to support the path’s completion.
His motion got unanimous support.
(Continued on Page 6)
Rehabilitation planned for Newbury and
Vermont bridges on Barbur Boulevard
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2.
The Southwest Portland Post
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
This year the Oregon Department of
Transportation will be doing repair work
on two Southwest Barbur Boulevard
overpasses. As part of the project they
propose “improvements” for bicyclists
which, they concede, are “not ideal.”
As ODOT’s Jilayne Jordan told the
South Portland Neighborhood Associa-
tion last month, the agency will do re-
pairs to the Newbury bridge (“I have no
idea why it’s called Newbury; perhaps
there were plans to build a street there”)
and the Vermont bridge, both south of
Capitol Highway.
Vermont is “one of the few bridges in
the state that has wooden caps,” Jordan
said. “It has deteriorated and rotted,
and is starting to crack. The wood has
to be replaced with steel or the bridge
has to be weight restrained,” meaning
that buses couldn’t use it. ODOT will
also replace the concrete at the joints,
Jordan said.
The $5 million project will start in
2014, she said. At times the work will
require restriction of traffic to one lane
in each direction, she said.
As part of the project, ODOT will look
at improving bicycle and pedestrian
movement on the bridges. Currently
they share a space that is “challenging at
best and downright scary” to negotiate,
Jordan said.
However, she said, “We can’t fix this
entirely. We can’t remove the walkway
without compromising the integrity of
the bridge.” A true fix would cost $25
million, five times the project budget,
she said.
ODOT is offering three options: They
can widen the southbound shared walk-
way by two feet; they can remove the
center median and widen the car lanes,
which are currently a substandard 10.5
feet, for shared use by bikes and cars;
or they can do nothing and leave things
as they are.
“I acknowledge that these are not ideal
options,” Jordan said.
South Portland board member Sharon
Fikety said, “I’d prefer a road diet (the
elimination of a traffic lane), but that’s
not on the table. You should widen the
lanes.”
Another board member, Jim Gardner,
countered. “Widening the lanes won’t
make much difference. There’s still not
enough room for a car to pass a bike
safely.” He said he would like “at least
one wider sidewalk.” Another board
member, Lee Buhler, said he also sup-
ported wider sidewalks.
Jordan said, “The minimum envelope
for a bicyclist is three feet. If they’re of-
fered less on a path, they won’t feel safe
and they’d rather stay in traffic.”
Fikety supported this, saying, “I don’t
care what you do to the sidewalks, I’m
not riding on them.” The board eventu-
ally voted to call for widened lanes.
Roger Averbeck, chair of the South-
west Neighborhoods Inc. Transportation
Committee, told The Post his own pref-
erence would be to remove the median
and have “pro time” traffic configura-
tions, with three northbound lanes in
the morning and three southbound
in the afternoon. Jordan said ODOT
planned to decide on a design approach
by February.