Heavy civil infrastructure contractor Stacy Witbeck recently replaced MAX tracks and adjacent road crossing panels where trains turn north from E Burnside Street to travel along Interstate 205. For years, westbound bicycle riders and sidewalk users have navigated the uneven surface in the bike lane and the at-grade pedestrian path at this crossing. Asphalt around the panels buckled with constant light-rail traffic shifting the track. The project repaired the automotive and bike lane rail-crossings but severed the north sidewalk connection with barricades blocking access. Instead, pedestrians will eventually cross the tracks from the nearby Interstate 205 Multiuse Path. Until the new rail crossing opens, people can cross E Burnside at the newly reconstructed 97th Avenue crosswalk and use the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street.
Developers made this redesigned crossing alignment public in a 2019 Design Commission Hearing for the 97th and Couch Apartments. The illustration includes a parklet at the intersection’s northwest corner, replacing the current I-205 Multiuse Path and leading people to a perpendicular track crossing from the sidewalk. The multi-family housing plans may have changed in the five years since they were approved. However, the pedestrian crossing panels installed by TriMet this month are in roughly the same location as the 2019 documents indicated. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) needs to realign the sidewalk on both sides of the track to connect with the updated crossing location. Diagrams for a Local Improvement District (LID) project planned for later this year include this new crossing realignment.
When westbound E Burnside Street reopens later this month, cyclists and drivers will have a smoother crossing over the MAX tracks. Pedestrians will need to wait for PBOT to complete sidewalk connections to use the new safer crossing that allows pedestrians to cross in a location with better visibility to approaching light-rail trains. That minor inconvenience should allow for improved pedestrian routes and help Multiuse Path users connect to the southern segment across the I-205 Freeway overpass.
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