March 23, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 7A
Construction impacts concern commissioners
Truck traffic
could strain
local roadways
By R.J. Marx
Cannon Beach Gazette
SEASIDE — Round two
of Seaside School District’s
presentation to the city’s Plan-
ning Commission saw con-
struction traffic and site ac-
cess as key discussion items.
Heavy truck traffic could
rupture or damage city roads
with with thousands of trucks
carrying rock and concrete
expected during the construc-
tion process, commissioners
said at Tuesday’s meeting.
The city could see “alligator”
effects to the asphalt from the
many trips during the con-
struction process.
The district’s conditional
use permit request includes
plans for expansion of Seaside
Heights Elementary School
and construction of middle-
and high-school facilities on
89 acres to the east of the el-
ementary school, approved by
voters in November 2016.
Based on the projected trip
generation of the campus af-
ter relocation of Gearhart El-
ementary School, Broadway
Middle School, and Seaside
High School, district traffic
consultants estimated that
Spruce Drive will carry a to-
tal of almost 4,000 daily trips.
“This amount of traffic is not
considered unreasonable, for
roadways classified as ma-
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Logs were removed from the site in 2017. Planning com-
missioners fear future construction traffic could have an
impact on city roads.
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Seaside School District board members toured the school
construction site during logging operations.
But along with traffic to and
from school, construction traf-
fic concerned Seaside planning
commissioners, especially the
25,000 truck trips expected up
and down local streets.
jor collectors in urban areas,
which can carry upwards of
7,000 average daily,” accord-
ing to the Lancaster Engineer-
ing Traffic Impact Study sub-
mitted by the school district.
“The number of cars that
line up along Avenue S and
101 is incredible,” Commis-
sioner David Posalski said.
“Getting around that corner
could be extremely problem-
atic.”
At the commission’s
March 6 session, traffic im-
pacts and safety were ele-
ments of discussion. District
consultants said they hope
approval of their conditional
The more trips, the more
damage, and the heavier ve-
hicles, the more the damage,
Commissioner Bill Carpenter
said. “A tractor-trailer weigh-
ing 80,000 pounds is expect-
ed to do 7,800 more times
damage to a road than a pas-
senger car.”
The district expects 18,000
concrete trucks and 10,000
loads of imported gravel, he
said. With added loads of
asphalt, rebar and structur-
al steel, construction traffic
could exceed 25,000 truck
trips, the equivalent of 1.5
million automotive trips over
an 18-month period, which
could significantly reduce the
life of roadways.
Carpenter suggested traffic
be diverted to logging roads
to mitigate some of these im-
pacts, which would be great-
est on Spruce Drive leading to
the campus.
Traffic is dependent on
the weather and the sequenc-
ing of the work, school dis-
trict architect Dan Hess re-
sponded. “The contractor
would rather not use Spruce
if they could avoid it.”
But in bad weather, logging
roads may not be an option.
“Contractors want to stay
off Spruce, but they have to
be practical about how they
do their work as well,” Hess
said.
Commissioners addressed
concerns of backups along
Avenue S near Highway 101,
especially delays that could
be caused by buildup of con-
struction traffic.
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By Brenna Visser
and R.J. Marx
Cannon Beach Gazette
Students at Seaside High
School emerged from their
building at precisely 10 a.m.
on Wednesday, March 14, in a
gesture of respect and remem-
brance for their 17 peers who
lost their lives in the Park-
land, Florida, school shoot-
ing on Feb. 14. The walkout,
conducted in cooperation
with school officials, came as
classes paused for the 17-min-
ute observance.
Circling together in bands
along the edge of the athletic
field, students offered a mes-
sage of mutual respect as they
went one-by-one to the mi-
crophone and expressed their
thoughts in one-line comments:
“I will respect my peers.”
“I will stand up for oth-
ers.”
“I will show kindness and
to everyone.”
“I will not watch others be
treated poorly.”
“I will extend friendship to
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Students at last week’s
17-minute walkout honor-
ing victims of the Parkland,
Florida, shooting at Mar-
gery Stoneman High School.
strangers.”
“I will speak up when
things aren’t right.”
“I will be a voice for those
who no longer have one.”
Unlike many walkouts
happening around the coun-
try, student organizer Se-
quoia Shand said the goal of
Wednesday’s
presentation
was focused on advocating
for “mutual respect” for one
another rather than stark em-
phasis on gun control.
For 17 minutes, 17 differ-
ent students presented call-to-
actions every minute, on the
minute, about how students
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night.”
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Seaside students share message of respect
can support one another. Ev-
ery statement was sandwiched
between long moments of si-
lence.
Among the approximately
150 visitors who joined the
walkout were district super-
intendent Sheila Roley and
principal Jeff Roberts.
In the wake of recent
shootings, Seaside High
School has taken some pre-
caution by tightening lock-
down protocols and choosing
to lock every door except the
front entrance throughout
the day. Preliminary designs
for the new Seaside school
campus feature school shoot-
ing-specific locking mech-
anisms that can lock down
doors and passage ways in the
school remotely.
“My concerns are like
everyone’s in this national
trend,” Roberts said. “We
don’t expect this kind of thing
here, but we’d be naive to
think it couldn’t happen here.
But I take solace in the ways
we’ve taken precautions.”
“This is about the lives that
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keep construction on track for
a June 1 groundbreaking. The
district hopes to open for stu-
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Commissioners
unani-
mously voted to keep the
record open for the April 3
meeting, which would in-
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responses from the district.
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