Document text
Residents' ideas will make Highland Drive safer By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune The South Medford Interchange Solution Team and the Citizens Advisory Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved neighbor ideas to make Highland Drive a safer route for residents. Highland will have 10-foot wide walking paths, separated from the roadway by landscaping. To help slow drivers, there will be intermittent tree islands between traffic lanes. "It's not a perfect world and we can't make it perfect but we're going to come up with the best project we can," said Frank Stevens, project manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation. "These projects take a huge effort - about 200 people have been involved." Besides a wider, calmer Highland, there will be sidewalks from the bridge on Barnett Road to Highland Avenue so walkers and bicyclists can easily reach Bear Creek Park. The sidewalks will extend to Ellendale Drive. Another change will be moving Bear Creek Park's entrance to align with Greenwood Street. "I was very happy they moved the park entrance across from Greenwood," said Darla Junkers, a Highland resident who served on the Citizen Advisory Committee Subteam for Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities. Seventeen people were appointed to the committee that was created to ease the impact of the new freeway interchange on Medford neighborhoods. She and members Peter Noyes and Lucy Warnick represent the Eastside Neighborhood Association, which opposed ODOT's planned extension of Highland Drive. In the state's $50 million interchange project, Highland Drive will extend past the Shell Station, across Interstate 5, wind past the ice skating rink and Miles Field and connect with the city's new extension of Garfield Street at Highway 99. Junkers said neighbors remained concerned about how people will cross Highland at Greenwood. "We will be watching the Greenwood crossing and we will keep asking the city for a stop sign or a traffic signal," she said. The Solution Team also learned Wednesday how the Bear Creek Greenway could benefit from the interchange project. Construction can be coordinated and the path can move farther away from the flood plain and thus satisfy concerns from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries. "It could be cheaper to build and have fewer environmental impacts," Stevens said. The neighborhood subcommittee also included Greg Jones, Medford's parks and recreation director, who showed how ODOT's plans to move Bear Creek's pedestrian bridge closer to the amphitheater mesh with the city's plan of building a new road into the park, linking Spencer Street with Alba Drive. And subcommittee member Alex Georgevitch, the city's traffic engineer, explained how the city's 17-street project list meshes with ODOT's project. The Solution Team and Citizens Advisory Committee agreed with neighbors that folks might have trouble crossing busy Highland Drive, especially in the summer when the city sponsors free concerts and movies in the park. "My experience is 20 percent of the cars yield to pedestrians," said Teresa Hogan, a Citizens Advisory Committee member. "I suggest a sign that says, 'Yield to Pedestrians.' " ODOT made a mistake by choosing to extend Highland Drive to Highway 99, said Dick Simonson, one of eight people in the audience Wednesday. He is a chief petitioner of a proposed initiative that would require voter approval on certain projects in Medford. "The sad part is, there was another alternative out there - building an interchange at South Stage Road," Simonson said. ODOT officials have said an interchange at South Stage was not feasible right now, and it was not among the final choices for the interchange. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.