This week, crews with Raimore Construction are wrapping up work on a new, safer crossing of NE Glisan Street at 80th Avenue. Due to stormwater management concerns, traffic engineers adjusted preliminary designs for extended sidewalk corners at this location with an innovative design that could save the city money and time if used in more places. This pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure enhancement project moved from inception to construction at an increased pace thanks to the Oregon Department of Transportation’s “Safe Routes to School” rapid response grant. It funded a large portion of the work without many of the application bottlenecks that often slow government projects.
The NE Glisan Street and 80th Avenue reconstruction features several safety improvements that will help schoolchildren, pedestrians, and cyclists cross a busy roadway that is wider than most in the area. NE Glisan supported one of East Portland’s longest-running streetcar lines, and that transit use required a more significant width to support the rail tracks and other adjacent traffic. A century later, with faster-moving cars on the street, long crosswalk distances now pose an increased risk to people walking or rolling through the intersections. Children walking to Vestal School frequently use this crossing, and it will soon become part of a bicycle and pedestrian Greenway realignment that extends along NE 80th to NE Halsey Street. To improve conditions, traffic engineers looked to shorten the crossing distance with two road features that provide people outside vehicles a safer place to wait for cars to yield. Crews will install two pedestrian refuge islands in the turning lane of NE Glisan Street, allowing people to cross in two phases and only focus on one direction of cross traffic at a time. These islands provide a stopping point mid-crosswalk while also forcing turning cars to remain in the travel lanes. This street design prevents other drivers from going around turning vehicles while their view of the intersection is blocked by the motorists turning right or left.
Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) staff designed the western crossing with curb extensions on the sidewalk corners to shorten pedestrian crossing distances further. These are bulbous concrete structures extending the corners into the parking lane so people trying to cross are more visible to the cars in the travel lanes. However, several topography issues threatened to remove or significantly reduce the safer sidewalk corners. A tight turning radius created by the proposed curb extensions on the northwest corner caused engineers to reduce its size. The built infrastructure on that corner now only extends two-feet into the parking lane of NE Glisan.
The southwest corner had even more issues. Some of which dates back to Portland’s streetcar past. The NE Glisan Street rail line branched off the main track with the “Montavilla Spur” heading south to SE Stark Street. That track is still under the street in many places, and the curved rail lines run under this worksite. Removing old tracks is costly and time-consuming, and city staff try to avoid disturbing them whenever possible. That alone would not prevent the extension of a corner, but rainwater management was another concern. The city builds streets with higher centers, so water flows away from traffic and into the gutters at the road’s edge. Sidewalks also angle slightly to move water away from adjacent buildings toward the curb. When a sidewalk corner extends into the street and onto the sloped road, it has the potential to direct water back from the curb toward the building. Making the sidewalk higher often fixes this problem. However, the business’s front door leading onto this corner prevents that increase in sidewalk height. Consequentially, city engineers built the extended curb with a wide rainwater channel along the traditional gutter line, allowing rainwater to flow to the existing stormwater inlet. They then created an at-grade cutout for the crosswalk similar in design to the pedestrian refuge islands.
The disconnected protruding sidewalk corner is relatively new on Portland streets, but its success could make safety updates less costly and easier to install. Whenever PBOT wants to extend a sidewalk corner, it currently takes complete corner reconstruction at the city’s or a developer’s expense. That work also requires crews to relocate stormwater inlets to meet the new shape of the curb. Some intersections also have underground utility lines at the street’s edge that prevent extended corners without significant expense. The disconnected protruding sidewalk corner accomplishes the same concrete protections as a traditional sidewalk, but crews can pour them on top of the road surface without disturbing below-ground obstacles. The curb ramp remains at the primary sidewalk corner, while designers placed the Truncated Domes that assist low-vision pedestrians at the edge of the extended corner. This positions all people waiting to cross in a visible spot beyond the parking lane and protected from traffic.
The new, safer crossing of NE Glisan Street at 80th Avenue could be a model for efficient infrastructure improvements. Its fast funding source is open to specific grant applications year-round, and its administrators are empowered to make quick decisions regarding an application. City staff’s creative workaround could open up more locations for safer infrastructure. If the newer pedestrian protecting design seen at the southwest corner works to keep rainwater moving in the right direction without clogging, Portland may begin using these designs in more places where cost or under-road conditions prevented them. Regardless of the citywide impact of this intersection’s design, families traveling to Vestal school, biking on the realigned greenway, and pedestrians will all enjoy a better crossing. Look for crews to complete construction in the coming weeks.
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