What’s happening now?
This project is in the final design phase. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2021 and end in spring 2022.
Existing conditions
Southeast Division Street is one of the most dangerous corridors in Portland. It ranks #1 for people killed or injured while walking, #1 for people killed or seriously injured in motor vehicles, and #2 for people killed or injured while bicycling. Just in the everyday act of moving about, 20 people have died and 107 have been seriously injured on SE Division in the last decade.
In a two-block stretch of SE Division Street, between SE 122nd and 124th avenues, there were nearly 90 crashes in a five-year period (2011-2015) as the below graphic shows. In more than half of those crashes, someone was injured or killed, and nine of those crashes involved a person walking or biking. Unfortunately, similar conditions are found throughout the area. PBOT designed this project with these types of crashes in mind. For example, the orange arrows show turning crashes. The center median that will be added to Division Street will significantly reduce left-turning crashes.
Recent investments
Since 2009, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has been working with the community on outer SE Division Street to develop projects that improve safety—especially for pedestrians—including sidewalks, safer crossings, and more street lighting.
To date, PBOT has:
- Permanently lowered the speed limit to 30 mph
- Installed speed safety cameras and speed reader boards
- Added street lighting
- Filled in missing sections of sidewalk
- Built several signalized pedestrian crossings near transit stops and in areas with a history of pedestrian crashes or other serious injury crashes
Safety elements on outer SE Division Street
Project components
PBOT’s Outer Division Multimodal Safety Project includes additional safety measures to reduce unsafe driving. This includes lowering speeds, providing more frequent (and better) pedestrian crossings, and making the street safer for people bicycling. This includes:
- 10 more signalized pedestrian crossings
- New street lighting between SE 82nd and 92nd avenues in the Jade District and between SE 122nd and 130th avenues in the Division-Midway area.
- Protected bike lanes throughout the corridor
- Raised center median along most of the corridor to limit vehicles turning and reduce crashes
Map of components
Map Legend
SE 80th - 112th
SE 112th - 143rd
SE 143rd - 174th
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Planning and public involvement
Our public involvement process began in 2017 and included:
- A listening session
- Two open houses
- An online survey
- Tens of thousands of mailers
- Email and website updates
- Group and individual meetings with business owners
- Office hours on Division
- Presentations to neighborhood and business associations
PBOT also contracted with Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and the Division-Midway Alliance (DMA) on multilingual education and community outreach. Feedback from this collaboration helped guide several modifications to the project design, including:
- PARKING. The preliminary plans showed no on-street parking throughout the project area. The final plans bring back pockets of on-street parking where the design allows (space is created on one side of the street where U-turns occur).
- TURNS. Working directly with businesses on Division, we have incorporated a few places where the medians will allow left turns from Division into businesses while still restricting left turns into the street. In these special cases, business operations were determined to be severely impacted by the medians because the size of vehicles would not have been able to make use of the provided U-turn areas.
- SIGNAL AT 125TH. Based on community feedback and further site analysis, traffic engineers determined that a full traffic signal at 125th would facilitate safe turns and crossings.
- BUSINESS SUPPORT. PBOT staff have been participating in partner coordination meetings with neighborhood groups, Prosper Portland, TriMet, and the Portland State University Business Outreach Program to share information and leverage resources to offer support to businesses during and after construction.
Funding
Funding for this project comes from the city's General Fund, Fixing Our Streets (the city's gas tax), Transportation System Development Charges, the cannabis tax, as well as funds from Oregon House Bill 2017.
Other projects in the same area
TriMet's Division Transit Project
TriMet’s Division Transit Project will improve travel between downtown Portland, Southeast and East Portland, and Gresham with easier, faster, and more reliable bus service. Construction is underway and the new transit service is expected to launch September 2022.
ODOT's All Road Transportation Safety Project at SE Division & I-205
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) will improve safety at the interchange of I-205 and Division Street by reconfiguring lanes and improving intersections to reduce conflicts and crashes. This will include dedicated turn lanes and upgraded traffic signals. Buffered bike lanes will create space between bicycles and vehicles to reduce conflicts. New curb ramps will improve safety and accessibility for everyone, including people with disabilities. Construction is expected to begin spring 2021 and continue through the end of 2021.
PGE's Utility Relocations
Portland General Electric (PGE) is relocating and installing power poles and lines to support PBOT's Outer Division Multi-Modal Safety Project and TriMet's Division Transit Project. Construction is currently underway and is expected to be complete by March 2021.
Multilingual Project Brochures
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中文 (Chinese)
English
русский (Russian)
Español (Spanish)
Soomaali (Somali)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)