The following was sent to engineer Wendy Crawly and project manager Zef Wagner, as well as others at PBOT, in response to the striping changes being made on Halsey currently. Please contact our Transportation and Land Use chair, Terry Dublinski-Milton, if you have questions.
The next Transportation and Land Use Committee meeting will take place on November 4th at Laurelhurst Café. Click here to review the agenda.
The North Tabor and Montavilla Neighborhood Association’s endorsement of the Halsey roadway lane modernization with bike lanes 67th to 74th as part of the 60th-70th repaving project:
Hello Wendy and Zef,
In May 2014 a presentation was given to Montavilla and Rose City Park Neighborhood Associations outlining a roadway modernization for all users from NE 65th east to NE 74th Avenue as part of the Halsey 60th-70th roadway repaving project. The North Tabor Neighborhood Association adds their UNANIMOUSLY endorsement to the Montavilla Neighborhood Association’s. This endorsement includes a modernized overpass that looks more like East Burnside and I 205 than the outdated previous striping and curb tight bike lanes from 67th east to 74th. It is our understanding that this project was put on hold some time during the summer of 2014 due to the loss of four parking spaces just east of 65th avenue. Implementing this project from 67th east would have no impact on parking. Halsey is a designated bikeway in the 2030 Bike Plan, TSP and is a high crash corridor.
North Tabor between Halsey and Glisan is so cut off from the rest of the city, we call it “The Pocket.” If you live in North Tabor and need to get east into Montavilla, one must walk or bike onto either Halsey or Glisan as there is no east-west conductivity. The steep slope of 67th by Fred Meyer south of Rosemont Bluff is a difficult connection that is not family friendly. Glisan has no crossing southbound at either 63rd or 62nd and 60th is heavily congested without bike facilities.
North Tabor is a neighborhood without a park or playground, hence it is very important to provide safe access to other parks nearby. Rose City Park to the north is the closest playground for our residents in “the Pocket”, and a modernized roadway on Halsey would give us safe access for the first time. The future 70’s bikeway crosses at 74th where Montavilla residents have been requesting a safer roadway with crossings for a long time. As we understand it this traffic light is getting a modernization, thus it is the perfect time to modernize the roadway as well. This would also give safer access to the Juvenile Detention Center just south of Halsey. With small traffic calming improvements long term on 68th place, a connection directly to the 60th avenue MAX stop via NE 65th and NE Oregon becomes possible. As North Tabor has applied for a TGM (Transportation Growth Management) grant to improve access to the 60th avenue MAX station, these improvements can be integrated together to create a seamless bikeway from the station east through the pocket, past the detention center and onto Halsey to get to points east/north and the Montavilla residential street grid.
As the overpass between 67th and the off-ramp has been ground down to be repaved, implementing a modernized roadway from 67th east to 74th not only would give residents safer pedestrians crossings, bike access to Tillamook to the north, but also lower travel speeds and crash risk. With only 13,000 vehicle per day, Halsey is a perfect candidate for a roadway reorganization on this high crash corridor, as recommended by federal guidelines. There is no need to wait for a global look at the corridor as it is repaving time: now is the most cost efficient time to modernize.
We understand that there is some funding available for a short section of “the 70’s” greenway and that there is an internal PBOT meeting on Nov 4th about NE Halsey and this project. Please consider the needs of the 22,000 residents represented by the North Tabor and Montavilla Neighborhood Associations during this discussion.
For more information, or a personal meeting to discuss these issues further, please contact our Transportation chair who is more than happy to answer all your questions:
Terry Dublinski-Milton
NTNA Transportation and Land Use Chair
Great letters folks! Just noticed there was work on Halsey yesterday and the paving appears to be complete. Let’s see these safety improvements happen!