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LINDA CARGILL
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| D.J. Bauley of B. Gentle Concrete puts the final touches on a section of sidewalk on Northeast Prescott Street, part of an infrastructure infill project funded by the Oregon legislature. Mid-county Memo photo/Tim E. Curran |
“Portland has a giant backlog of sidewalk work to do,” Newlands said. “We inherited a lot of areas that were formerly Multnomah County's that never required sidewalks. We're trying to chip away at that backlog.”
Funded by the same house bill, another sidewalk project adds sidewalks along Northeast Prescott Street from 105th to 116th Avenues, connecting Prescott Elementary with Parkrose High School. Workers started in early August, finishing up at the end of September.
Since only $8 million dollars was allocated to construct sidewalks in all of east Portland, city planners chose to build only on the south side of Prescott, leaving the north side unpaved.
“We're trying to stretch our dollars further,” Kyle Chisek, capital project manager for Portland's Bureau of Transportation said. “We're trying to do something for all of east Portland and being more equitable about it.”
They decided on the south side since it has more pedestrians, including children walking to school, plus two schools and a park. The north side is mostly residential.
If residents advocate for more money from the City Council for sidewalks or if they form a Local Improvement District, each homeowner paying a portion of the construction cost, the city might construct on the north side in the future. Developers might also decide to build along the street, footing some of the bill to pave the north side.
The $554,000 for the project came from the same house bill money set aside for Mid-Multnomah County.
“One of the factors we looked at were streets used by school-aged children to walk to school,” said Chisek.
Through the East Portland in Motion process, planners looked at all of east Portland.
“I like them, they're nice, they look great, but they didn't need to be this wide; look how far they go over,” said Mike Barnett, who lives on Prescott Street. “They took out some really nice, old trees making them this big.” When he moved in a few years ago Barnett said Prescott Street was in awful shape in front of his house. He tried to get help from the city, but was told there was no money in the budget. With no help forthcoming, he and a neighbor chipped in to buy four 20-ton trucks of gravel and then spread it themselves. “They've taken all our gravel,” Barnett said with a laugh. The short notice before construction began did not please Barnett either. “It would have been nice to get a little more notice. We found out right before they started the work.”
In addition to the sidewalks, Chisek said the bureau expects to approve two stop signs at Northeast Prescott Street at 115th Avenue, which should be installed by the end of the year. “There's a little bit of a crash history [there]."
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