Open house will be first chance to weigh in on major bikeway upgrades on SW Naito Parkway

From PBOT’s 30% plans.

A project that offers a major update to SW Naito Parkway will get it first official public viewing this coming Wednesday (1/10).

The new bikeway would connect to Orange MAX Line improvements and would provide a direct connection between SW and the Hawthorne Bridge without going through Waterfront Park or the Riverplace Marina district.

As we reported back in September, the Portland Bureau of Transportation plans to do a full rebuild and repave of Naito Parkway (99W) between I-405 and SW Jefferson. Thanks in part to a state law that requires road reconstructions to include bikeway facilities, PBOT plans to to add a separated cycletrack from SW Harrison to north of the Hawthorne Bridge.

According to PBOT’s draft plans, the new cycletrack would start at Harrison as an off-street facility where there’s currently only a sidewalk. The facility would then transition to a two-way, separated bikeway on Naito Parkway at SW Market and continue in that configuration until just north of the Hawthorne Bridge near the Salmon Street Fountain. At that point it would connect to Better Naito, the currently seasonal protected bike and walkway on Naito Parkway that is likely to be made permanent by the end of this year.

In September, PBOT’s Group Manager for Planning, Policy and Projects, Art Pearce told us, “Not every paving project allows us to recreate the traffic flow in an area, but in this case, we are able to analyze the potential to use one travel lane to provide safer bicycle and pedestrian access.”

In addition to the bikeway, PBOT also wants to alleviate backups for drivers and improve streetcar operations by adding new traffic signals at Jefferson and the Hawthorne Bridge and signal upgrades at Market and Clay. To make it easier to cross Naito, a new midblock signal could be added between Harrison and Clay and a full signal would be added at Jefferson with new connections between downtown and Waterfront Park.

At next week’s open house, the public will be able to view new visualizations and will be able to share feedback on these potential changes. Funding for the project is coming from Portland’s Fixing Our Streets program and from the Oregon Department of Transportation. PBOT plans to construct the project in 2018. This project was originally part of a larger repaving that included improvements to SW Main between 1st and 2nd.

For more on the project, visit PBOT’s website.

The open house is on Wednesday (1/10) from 4:30 to 7:00 pm at the Portland State University Center for Executive and Professional Education, 1500 SW 1st Ave, Suite 100.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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