SoWhat District money drain: Still sucking
From this month's SW Neighborhood News:
At the February meeting, our guests were Jody Yates and Amy Gibbons of ODOT. They reported on a project that ODOT and the City of Portland are partnering on: to resolve traffic movement problems caused by a high volume of cars in a short northbound segment of Macadam Blvd making lots of lane changes to get to different destinations. Cars coming of the I-5 North Macadam off-ramp and going to the new South Waterfront District have to quickly move over to the right lanes of Macadam. In that same space, some cars already on Macadam from the south have to move to a left lane to get on I-5. ODOT calls it a weave-merge problem that will only get worse as South Waterfront builds out and more regional traffic goes up Macadam.ODOT and the city are looking at two fixes, both with cost estimates of about $40 million. Funding has been secured from several sources but there is still a big $12 million shortfall. ODOT and the city are sharing the costs. If the shortfall problem is solved, perhaps with a bigger federal earmark, construction may start in the spring of 2010.
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Comments (16)
This is terrific news. We've finally located the center of the linchpin.
Posted by Bill McDonald | March 3, 2008 9:20 AM
I thought that the new traffic light solved this problem: it stops cars exiting from I-5 so that cars northbound on Macadam can get into the freeway lanes, and then it stops cars on Macadam so that cars leaving I-5 can turn right into SoWhat.
On the good side, it sounds as if there's $28 million that can be diverted from this project to the Sellwood Bridge.
Posted by Isaac Laquedem | March 3, 2008 9:28 AM
Funding has been secured from several sources...
France, Germany and Japan, I hope.
Was this on the napkin, Sam?
Posted by cc | March 3, 2008 9:33 AM
Maybe the Willamette river can be a "cherry" stem linking the Sellwood Bridge to the Pearl District. Just hang a few condos from the new bridge.
Posted by Bark Munster | March 3, 2008 11:28 AM
So what is the total now:
- $100M to finish waterfront walkway
- $100M to get the I-5 on/off done right
- $50M for infrastructure
All this for about 5000 condos or $50K/unit? What's the payback in prop taxes on that.
Posted by STeve | March 3, 2008 11:42 AM
What's all this driving in automobiles all about? The South Waterfront was supposed to let you live a car-free existence, what with the streetcar and the tram. Don't I remember Randy Leonard saying that folks could afford those higher priced condos because they wouldn't have the expense of owning an auto?
Posted by Dave Lister | March 3, 2008 1:06 PM
Maybe we need Comedian Steve Martin's solution as made famous on Saturday Night Live. Let's get really, really small.
We could double the road capacity by shrinking cars to half their current size. I still prefer half a car to being herded into a rail car.
But seriously, the only objection I have to fixing this Macadam road blockage is local and state government always seeming to pay top dollar (above competitive bid) for any work done plus mounds of consultant studies.
Posted by Bob Clark | March 3, 2008 1:19 PM
The SoWhat I-5 ramp is even more comical. Just 6 months ago, Brian Newman (Metro fame) now representing OHSU on the URAC, requested PDOT to do a "sensitivity study" on the ramp issue that had been decided over three years ago. He stated that possibly the flyover ramp to the tune of $80M may not be needed, and he asked that if not he would still like those dollars to be spent in SoWhat for OSHU's expansion. There was some disagreement to Neuman's thinking.
But the comedy continues: PDOT came back with the study (taxpayer expense)that said even with the temporary improvements of added two lanes off I-5 and signals, this ramp would reach failure very soon, and the designed flyover ramp is needed immediately. This is called Planning. The flyover ramp planning was an earlier ODOT and PDOT endeavor that said for SoWhat to somewhat function transportation-wise, that it was needed. OHSU was merely trying to skim more public money for their dreams.
BTW, the South Portal street improvements (SW Bancroft and two street south) that are designed to allow more capacity for traffic from Macadam to enter and exit from SoWhat is now costing over $50M and going up.
I thought transportation infrastructure was to be in place before development could occur, and that the developers were to pay for the improvements.
Posted by Lee | March 3, 2008 1:57 PM
Lee: that is only for evil cookie cutter suburban developments. The point of the fees is to discourage their construction because they will all become slums within the next 5 years due to peak oil.
Transit oriented utopia such as this doesn't have such restrictive rules because the developers who build them and the people who live there are progressive and saving us from global warming/cooling/whatever.
Posted by Anthony | March 3, 2008 2:09 PM
...because the developers who build them and the people who live there are progressive and saving us from global warming/cooling/whatever.
But who'll save us from them?
Posted by cc | March 3, 2008 2:16 PM
There's no chance of any traffic related projects starting any time soon in this
city.
Every single elected official in sight is opposed to doing anything to relieve traffic or to accomodate increasing traffic.
Posted by Beth | March 3, 2008 8:18 PM
"But seriously, the only objection I have to fixing this Macadam road blockage is local and state government always seeming to pay top dollar (above competitive bid) for any work done plus mounds of consultant studies."
That's par for the course. I heard the new Columbia River Bridge has already cost $17 million -- just talking about it!
Moreover, these public works projects would cost a third less if it wasn't for that stupid Davis Bacon Act.
Posted by Chris McMullen | March 3, 2008 10:08 PM
"Moreover, these public works projects would cost a third less if it wasn't for that stupid Davis Bacon Act."
Yeah, paying union wages is just a horrible thing, isn't it?
Posted by Greg Diamond | March 4, 2008 12:37 AM
I used to do my Davis Bacon Act at Fuller's, back when you could park over there. The rest room was an adventure, too.
Posted by Jack Bog | March 4, 2008 12:41 AM
It is a good thing most of those condos in SOWA are vacant. If people lived there the traffic would be much worse.
Posted by John | March 4, 2008 11:45 AM
I understand Oregon has a "Little Davis-Bacon Act". What's that - dwarf comedians?
Posted by cc | March 4, 2008 12:29 PM