December 21, 2002
Rebuilding Burnside
Without approving any funding for the protect, the Portland City Council has approved a plan to revitalize Burnside Street:
That's the latest ambitious, visionary civic-improvement project on the city's wish list. Council members think the Burnside Transportation and Urban Design Plan, as it's known on the official city documents, would improve traffic flow, lure new jobs, increase pedestrian traffic, boost existing businesses, rid the street of drugs and hookers, and, in general, make Portland a better place to live.
"You want a major street like that to have good traffic flow and a good business climate," said Commissioner Erik Sten. "Right now, we've got a street there that isn't succeeding on either level."
Burnside, for those who don't know, is the line which bisects the northern half of the city from the southern (the Willamette River divides the eastern half from the western).
The approve-without-funding theory here is to move ahead with the planning and design so that when the economy improves enough for there to be a potential budget for the project, it will be ready to go.
Key to the project is creating what road planners call a "couplet," a pair of one-way streets. The project would make Burnside Street one-way eastbound from 15th Avenue on the west side of the Willamette River to 14th Avenue on the east side. The exception would be the Burnside Bridge, which would remain two-way.
Westbound traffic would use Couch Street one block to the north. Couch would not need to be expanded, but traffic lights would replace the stop signs.
The project calls for redesigning the intersection of Sandy Boulevard, Burnside Street and 12th Avenue, connecting Burnside and Couch streets with a half traffic circle. Lindley would like to see some kind of gateway there marking the entry to the city core.
Again for those who don't know: That intersection of Sandy, Burnside, and 12th is one of the most psychotic pieces of road design I have ever seen in my life, anywhere. If you follow that link to the aerial photograph, it might not immediately look like a big deal. But examine the batch of roads that all come together around the center, and then imagine being in a car there.
At some point, there was talk of blocking Sandy off altogether at that intersection, thereby removing it from contributing to the traffic problem, but this article doesn't mention if this newly-approved Burnside plan includes this particular element.