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 fall 2022. See our FAQ page about the detour. The project is scheduled to be complete in December 2022. Inclement weather, material shortages, and/or labor shortages could affect the schedule.
Construction Over the Past Two Weeks (November 22 - December 3)
- Crews began installing stormwater pipes and maintenance holes on SW Capitol Highway between Garden Home Road and 40th Avenue, which has required daytime detours along this stretch. This stormwater line will eventually extend the length of the project, conveying stormwater from future inlets to the four off-site stormwater facilities. The work started at the north end of the project and continues to move south.
- Multnomah South stormwater facility construction continued.
- Retaining wall work continued on SW Capitol Highway between Spring Garden and Lobelia.
Work Planned for the Next Two Weeks (December 6-17)
- Night work is planned on Thursday, December 9 from 7 pm until 6 am Friday at SW Multnomah Boulevard and 40th Avenue. This is to install pipes and maintenance holes across SW Multnomah Boulevard with minimal traffic disruption. Noise from the night work will affect nearby homes, as well as those near the Sears Armory staging area. We received a Noise Variance from the City Noise Program and mailed two rounds of postcard notices to surrounding residences. An additional night of work could be needed during the week of December 13, but that is unlikely. Traffic impacts are detailed below under Traffic and Trail Impacts.
- Related stormwater and cable utility work will take place on SW 40th Avenue before and after the night work, with traffic flagging likely.
- Water main work in SW Capitol Highway between Garden Home Road and Carson Street begins the week of December 6 and continues through the 23rd, moving from north to south. This work is replacing the old water main with a larger, earthquake-resistant pipe.
- On Tuesday, December 16 and Monday, December 20 there will be daytime water shut-offs impacting 29 homes on SW Capitol Highway between Garden Home Road and Carson Street. Impacted residents will receive paper notices. Each shutoff could last as long as eight hours. This work is necessary to install valves in the old water main to make connections to the new water line less impactful to residents in the future. Accordingly, shorter water shut-offs will take place in January 2022 to connect homes to the new water line.
- Wall construction will continue in the Multnomah South stormwater facility.
- Restoration will continue at the 42nd/Woods Creek stormwater facility.
Traffic and Trail Impacts:
- Thursday, December 9 from 7 pm until 6 am Friday, flaggers at the SW Multnomah Boulevard and 40th Avenue intersection will direct traffic during night work. East-west travel on SW Multnomah Boulevard will be maintained during the night work, but expect delays and obey all flaggers and signs.
- SW 40th Avenue will be completely closed between Multnomah Boulevard and Troy Street during the night work on December 9.
- SW 40th Avenue between Multnomah Boulevard and Garden Home Road will be open only to residents and visitors of the Village at Multnomah Village condos during the night work.
- Outside of the night work, SW 40th Avenue between Garden Home Road and Troy Street may see occasional lane closures and flagging for pipe work.
- On SW Capitol Highway it may be necessary to temporarily move or halt traffic within the right-of-way for very short segments. This results in some delays for northbound traffic, transit, and pedestrians.
- The primary SW Capitol Highway detour of southbound traffic remains in effect.
Looking Ahead
- Water main construction will continue on SW Capitol Highway from Garden Home Road to Carson Street. As noted above, daytime water shutoffs are scheduled in this area for Thursday, December 16 and Monday, December 20.
- Retaining wall work will continue on the southern half of SW Capitol Highway, and in the Multnomah South basin.
- No construction activity will occur between Christmas and New Years Day.
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
Below is a map of the main features of the project. Scroll past the map for a more detailed 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.