The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) was awarded a $20 million grant by the US Department of Transportation to make safety improvements along 122nd Avenue from SE Foster Road to NE Sandy Boulevard. The busy, five-lane arterial street is one of the most dangerous in the city and serves some of Portland’s most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. PBOT will provide $5 million in matching funds to support the project, leveraging funds already allocated from Fixing Our Streets for paving SE 122nd Avenue between SE Foster Road and SE Holgate Street.
The Safe Streets and Roads for All grant will fund many of the major safety improvements identified in PBOT’s 122nd Avenue Plan, which engaged community members and stakeholders from 2017 through 2021 to understand how Portlander’s use the road today and their priorities for the future.
Using a combination of community feedback and traffic crash data analysis, numerous improvements along the 122nd Avenue corridor have been identified. Those improvements include:
- filling gaps in street lighting
- adding protected bike lanes
- new/improved pedestrian crossings
- adding median refuge islands and street trees
- safety improvements at major intersections
- reducing vehicle lanes south of Powell
- converting Harold Boulevard to a roundabout
- adding bus stop curb extensions
- upgrading all signals to improve safety
- adding speed reader boards
- developing a safety education campaign
More information about this project, including a project schedule and opportunities for public feedback and engagement, will be shared soon. To stay updated, sign up for email updates below.