Document text
Deadline presses Highway 66 redesign in Ashland By TONY BOOM Mail Tribune ASHLAND - Planners are under the gun to design better pedestrian and vehicle access to Highway 66. Work on the project must be complete and billed to the Oregon Department of Transportation before April 30, 2003, the deadline for a $450,000 state grant. The work, inside city limits, will extend from the highway's intersection with Siskiyou Boulevard to Faith Avenue just before a railroad overpass and will include island medians and improved pedestrian crossings. Five-lane Highway 66 is also known as Ashland Street. The City Council approved the project in December. As part of the project, the city is considering taking over ownership of the road from the state. Portland-based consulting firm W&H Pacific, which the city hired to redesign Siskiyou Boulevard, also will design the Highway 66 project. "We're on a real fast track," said Paula Brown, Ashland public works director. "I'm putting a lot on the consultants, and they are actually handling it pretty well." An open house with plans that are close to 90 percent complete will be held in City Council chambers from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. A final design for Siskiyou Boulevard will be shown at the same session. Plans for the Highway 66 project call for three island medians. One would be at the Siskiyou Boulevard intersection. A second would be between Lit Way and Ray Lane, and the third would be at Faith Avenue. Curbs may define left-turn lanes at some intersections. Improved pedestrian crossings and combined driveway access will also be included. Repaving costs may fall to the city. But transferring ownership of the road from the state to the city also could result in the state paying those costs, estimated at $200,000 to $300,000. Besides repaving, the city might install underground wiring for a traffic light planned at Normal Avenue in five to 10 years. An ad hoc advisory committee of business owners and residents in the area has helped with the design. "My thoughts are mostly directed toward traffic calming by introducing some small amounts of median ... that lets people know they are in the city," said Carl Oates, an area resident and committee member. "Highway 66 on the other side of the overpass is looked upon as if you are still upon Interstate 5. "I'm a senior citizen," said Oates. "Crossing the present arrangement is just not something that senior citizens should do without help of a refuge or a marked crosswalk." Business owners expressed concerns that big-rig trucks be able to negotiate into two shopping centers along the highway, said Oates. Approval of a 90 percent complete design will be sought at the April 2 council meeting. Bids on the project will be solicited in late May. Construction could start in July. Reach Ashland bureau reporter Tony Boom at 482-4651, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.