We offer the following insights as a result of the most recent field trip.
(1) The Pine
Street/Hickory Street/Liberty Rd/Front Street areas have properties which are
vacant, under-utilized, or for sale. Almost all of the area affected by
bridgeheads connecting to Pine Street NE and Hickory Street NE are really more
in a low-volume or low-existent commercial use and, not substantially in
residential use.
(2)
Absent also were any
sidewalks or crosswalks on parts of Pine and Hickory streets.
(3)
The Third Bridge EIS
is providing Council with great opportunities to improve neighborhoods (i.e.,
sidewalks, streetlights, green areas), as well as provide for better
mobility.
(4)
As originally designed,
the potential of extending Pine Street eastward to directly connect to
Silverton Rd NE (over the RR tracks) would also improve east-west traffic
flows.
(5)
In West Salem,
improvements for the planned Marine Drive NW are already in the Salem’s
Transportation Plan. While those improvements may need to be expanded to
the Third Bridge traffic, impacts to residential areas are minimal and already
assumed for Marine Drive NW.
(6)
Marine Drive NW
$3.5M funding is already provided for in the 2008 Streets and Bridges bond
measure, approved by the voters.
(7)
Much of the
south-side of Edgewater NW is already ODOT-owned Right-of-Way (“ROW”).
Regardless of improvements needed for a Third Bridge, ODOT currently has the
option of widening OR Highway 22 where parts of the Edgewater Drive linear park
are now and underneath where some of the northern Edgewater NW small businesses are
now.
