The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and Metro are partnering to build a new north-south greenway connection in Cully and Roseway on NE 72nd Avenue between NE Sandy Boulevard and NE Lombard Street (formerly NE Killingsworth Street). New sidewalks and bicycle paths will connect residents to neighborhood stores, schools, and parks and will eventually link to the continuous seven-mile greenway across the city to the Springwater Corridor Trail.
What’s happening now
We have been working to develop the project’s scope and preliminary design since last summer, incorporating both community feedback from the online design survey and rapidly changing pricing conditions due to supply chain challenges and increasing labor costs.
Our first attempt at the preliminary design was about $1.5 million over the project’s $5.4 million budget. As a result, the design team went back to the drawing board and looked for places to reduce cost while still retaining the original goals and spirit of the project. We wanted to keep the overall length of the project (NE Sandy Boulevard to NE Lombard Street) intact to avoid any gaps in the route.
Unfortunately, we had to make some hard decisions and are now moving the design forward without two elements of the project in order to bring the cost to within our current funding level:
- Instead of separated biking and walking facilities between NE Prescott and Sumner streets, PBOT will construct a multi-use path. The early project concept included a sidewalk and separate bicycle-only facility between NE Prescott Street and NE Sumner Street (where available right of way is wider). To reduce cost, we have changed 3.5 blocks of this separated facility to a multi-use path, meaning that pedestrians and people biking will share the 12 foot-wide space. The multi-use path will still be physically separated from motor vehicle traffic. North of NE Sumner Street, the plan already included a multi-use path since available right-of-way is narrower.
- One new signalized pedestrian crossing of NE Sandy Blvd was removed. The early concept included a new signalized pedestrian crossing of NE Sandy Blvd near the western (southbound) leg of NE 72nd Avenue. This crossing had to be cut from the project for budget reasons. The project still includes new turn restrictions at the intersection of NE 72nd, Sandy and Fremont streets to decrease conflicts for pedestrians and people biking through this intersection, and will also re-stripe the existing signalized crossing at SE Sandy Blvd and SE 72nd Ave.
What’s next
2022-2023: Engineering and design of the project will continue
Late 2023: Procurement of a construction contractor
2024: Anticipated construction
PBOT’s goal is to avoid further scope reductions, but pricing uncertainty could continue to present challenges to our budget. More information will be sent out via email if additional changes are required.
Please visit our website to learn more: http://portland.gov/70s-greenway-cully