What's Happening Now
Construction Update:
The City of Portland's contractor Landis & Landis Construction, LLC began major construction work on June 14, 2021 along SW Capitol Highway. A detour of southbound traffic began on August 18, 2021 and will last through November 2022. See our FAQ page about the detour.
Construction This Past Week (September 7)
The SW Carson Street water main is now complete and fully operational. A few remaining backside water connections on Carson and 41st were completed, marking the end to this part of the project and any related water service disruptions. Note - The larger SW Capitol Highway water main work will begin this winter.
Final pavement restoration on SW Carson Street was completed. Note – neighbors will be paving part of SW 41st Avenue south of Carson later this fall.
The contractor continued work on retaining walls between Spring Garden and Lobelia, including pouring footings and tying rebar.
Retaining walls in the Multnomah South facility were also under construction.
The contractor began clearing and widening the work zone on SW Capitol Highway north of Spring Garden on the east side. Crews carefully excavated around large tree roots using hand shovels.
A few additional trees and shrubs were cut in spot locations on SW Capitol Highway to make way for larger-than-anticipated retaining wall excavations.
At the SW 42nd / Woods Creek stormwater facility, bridge footing forms for the Alice Trail bridge and grading continued for the stormwater facility and stream restoration.
Work Planned for the Next Two Weeks (September 13-24)
The SW 42nd / Woods Creek stormwater facility will be very busy over the next few weeks, as we swiftly wrap up work before the in-water work season concludes to protect fish. Crews will excavate the space for the pre-cast concrete stormwater facility, which will be installed by crane at the end of the month.
PGE will need to enact a power outage on Tuesday, September 14 to move some equipment. This will affect various homes in the project area, whose residents should have received paper notices or phone calls from PGE. For more information please call PGE directly at 800.544.1795.
Some additional tree trimming and cutting is planned for Wednesday, September 15th in spot locations on SW Capitol Highway.
The retaining walls on SW Capitol Highway between Spring Garden and Dolph will have their vertical portions formed and poured full of concrete.
Excavation will occur for the retaining wall on the west side of SW Capitol Highway between Marigold and Primrose.
Retaining walls will continue to be formed and poured in the Multnomah South stormwater facility.
Traffic and Trail Impacts:
With the major detour of SW Capitol Highway now in effect, there are fewer day-to-day detours and traffic changes. We ask that people stick to the main detour route and other major roadways to minimize cut-through traffic on local neighborhood streets.
With the SW Carson Street water main and pavement restoration complete, construction traffic on surrounding streets should drop considerably. We are keeping the “Local Access Only” barricades in place at Carson/41st for the remainder of the project to dissuade cut-through traffic.
“No Motor Vehicles” signs have been installed on the 42nd Avenue trail (SW Trail #7) between Carson and Lobelia after vehicles were observed using the trail as a detour.
Speeding complaints continue on SW 45th, 48th, Garden Home and Capitol. We are looking into speed reader boards for 45th/48th and Capitol.
Reopening of the Alice Trail within Woods Memorial Natural Area has been pushed from September 30 to mid-October, pending completion of the bridge.
In an unrelated but nearby ODOT project, the SW Capitol Highway on-ramp to I-5 south is closed 24/7 for five weeks (35 days) from Thursday, September 9 to Thursday, October 14. More info here.
Looking Ahead
A large crane will be mobilized to install the pre-cast concrete SW 42nd / Woods Creek stormwater facility the last week of September. BES and the contractor will work with impacted residences to address access and parking issues.
Installation of the Alice Trail bridge over Woods Creek also is planned for the last week of September. The Alice Trail through Woods Memorial Natural Area is expected to reopen by mid-October.
Retaining wall construction in the Multnomah South stormwater facility will continue.
Retaining walls will be formed and poured on SW Capitol Highway between Dolph and Primrose. Earlier poured walls north of Dolph will be backfilled.
Night work at SW Multnomah Boulevard and 40th Avenue remains postponed until several underground communications lines are moved out of the way. These six nights of night work to install stormwater pipes and maintenance holes are now looking to happen in October. The City has approved the modified Noise Variance and we will send letters to nearby homes in advance of the work when we know the dates.
Stormwater pipe work in SW Capitol Highway will begin as early as November. This will mean that fewer portions of the closed lane will be available for walking and biking (through the gravel shoulders will still be available).
Virtual Open Houses:
A live presentation and Q&A session took place on Zoom the evening of Thursday, June 10th, 2021. You can watch the video here.
A separate, self-guided open house featuring an interactive map covering the construction schedule and project details is available here:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/6c526f12bc934701b3a2731e0bab4188
Construction news and project updates
Project Description
This project will improve safety and mobility for all modes of travel while improving stormwater management, protecting water quality in local streams, and updating water supply infrastructure to meet modern demands. Portland’s Bureau of Transportation, Bureau of Environmental Services, and Water Bureau are working on the project together to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance service delivery to the Portland community.
The project will add a continuous sidewalk and protected bike lane on the east side of SW Capitol Highway, and a multi-use path on the west side of the street, from SW Taylors Ferry Road to SW Garden Home Road. The project will collect and convey stormwater runoff through inlets and pipes to four new stormwater treatment and detention basins located nearby. The project also will upgrade the SW Capitol Highway water main to a larger, more seismically-resilient pipe between SW Marigold Street and SW Garden Home Road, with additional main replacement on SW Carson Street.
Please note that this project involves traffic detours. June-July 2021 will involve a series of closures of SW Garden Home Road and SW 40th Avenue between SW 45th Avenue and SW Capitol Highway, as well as several nights of night work at SW Multnomah Boulevard and SW 40th Avenue, for pipe installation. Then starting in August 2021, all southbound traffic on SW Capitol Highway will be diverted to SW 45th and 48th Avenues via SW Garden Home Road, and returning to SW Capitol Highway via SW Taylors Ferry Road. This includes TriMet buses. This detour will remain in place for the remainder of the 18-month project to help the contractor complete the project in a more safe, efficient fashion. Northbound traffic and TriMet buses will remain on SW Capitol Highway throughout the project. PBOT will issue Traffic Advisories in advance of these major traffic changes.
Project Background
Providing sidewalks and bike lanes on this segment of SW Capitol Highway has been a community priority for nearly 30 years. This segment, between SW Garden Home Road and SW Taylors Ferry Road, hosts over 8,000 vehicles per day, is served by TriMet’s #44 bus line, and currently has no sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian crossings or standard stormwater facilities.
The city’s project development process for this corridor began with the Capitol Highway Plan in 1996 and continued with the SW Capitol Highway Plan Refinement Report in 2011 and the Capitol Highway Corridor Stormwater Concept Design in 2016. In each of these cases, the city faced challenges in developing a buildable project with limited funding and challenging physical constraints.
In 2016 and 2017 sufficient funding came together from the voter-approved "Fixing Our Streets" ten-cent gas tax, development charges, Environmental Services, Water Bureau, and the State of Oregon, allowing the project to advance. The project team worked closely with the community from 2016 through 2020 to refine the design and discuss property and neighborhood impacts and benefits.
Project Funding
This joint PBOT-BES-PWB project is funded through the Fixing Our Streets city gas tax, Transportation System Development Charges, Oregon Lottery-backed bonds authorized by the 2017 State Legislature, Bureau of Environmental Services funds, and Water Bureau funds. Fixing Our Streets is contributing roughly $6.6 million of the total project budget of $27.5 million, making this the largest project funded by the Fixing Our Streets program. The construction contract value is approximately $14 million, with remaining funds attributed to planning, design engineering, right-of-way acquisition, project management, and construction management and inspection.