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McLoughlin Blvd Enhancements
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Phase 3: 10th Street to tumwata village
Related: Listen to the Inside City Hall Podcast discussing the McLoughlin Blvd. Enhancement Project
ODOT Project Name: Willamette Falls Path/OR99E Enhance: 10th St - Railroad Ave
OC Project ID: CI 22-002
Project Type: Capital Improvement
Project Status: Active
Neighborhood: Two Rivers, McLoughlin (adjacent)
The City of Oregon City and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) are partnering to evaluate options for a shared-use pedestrian and bicycle path and streetscape enhancements on both sides of McLoughlin Boulevard between 10th Street and tumwata village. This project is the last and most complex phase of Oregon City’s McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement Plan, which has been in progress for the past 20 years.
Opportunities for Community Participation and Feedback
The City will host two online open houses to share additional information about the project. The first Virtual Open House is Dec 6-22. City Commission briefings will occur throughout the process and can be attended by the public or streamed online.
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Project Benefits and Needs
- The project aims to provide safe access to people who walk, access transit, bike and roll on McLoughlin Boulevard. Currently it lacks dedicated on-street bike lanes, proper and sufficient sidewalks and railings and a barrier to fast-moving traffic.
- Improved infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users will close a substandard and unsightly transportation gap.
- Support Oregon City's tourism, economic, and community development goals by improving walking and biking facilities to better integrate and re-orientate downtown’s relationship with the Willamette River.
Background
The project is located on OR 99E, also known as McLoughlin Boulevard, an Oregon Department of Transportation facility. The corridor is designated as a Regional Bikeway and Pedestrian Parkway, with frequent transit service running parallel to the corridor. However, the final phase of the McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement Plan has proven to be the most challenging, as it is intertwined with the OR 99E viaducts and crosses the Highway 43 bridge alignment. Transit users and pedestrians often feel unsafe due to inadequate lighting, narrow sidewalks, and deteriorating railings that fail to provide a barrier from adjacent fast-moving traffic. The McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement Plan was adopted in 2005. Phases 1 and 2 of the plan have been completed. Unfortunately, the viaducts, located between 8th and 10th Streets, are not expected to be replaced with an expanded structure supporting a widened sidewalk, which is necessary to provide the needed width for safe bicycle and pedestrian access. Attaching a new path to the existing viaduct is also not feasible due to its age and structural design.To address this critical gap in our active transportation network, the City needs to update the options within this section of the corridor. These options could include a separate structure that runs parallel to the viaduct at the same or different grade. The project has two main goals that address barriers to investing and revitalizing properties that front McLoughlin Boulevard in Oregon City:
This project will enable the City to complete the Alternatives Identification and Evaluation phase to determine how to address this gap. Once a preferred alternative is identified, the City will proceed with a more detailed design and apply for grants to build all or portions of the section. Check out the Inside City Hall Podcast for more background from John Lewis, Oregon City Public Works Director and Marc Butorac, Kittelson & Associates. |
Project Documents
- Tech Memo 1 Corridor Vision Statement
- Tech Memo 2 Evaluation Criteria and Performance Measures
- Tech Memo 3 Plan, Policy, and Background
- Tech Memo 4 Alternative Concepts
- Mejoras a McLoughlin Boulevard-Español
- McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancements Dec Utility Bill Insert
- McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancements Fact Sheet
- McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement Plan 2005
- McLoughlin Blvd Enhacement Mail-in Comment Form
City Commission Briefings
- December 12, 2023 City Commission Worksession- alternatives analysis update
- November 7, 2023 City Commission Worksession-review approval criteria, corridor vision, list of alternatives
- September 6, 2023 Commission Worksession- Project overview
Boards, Commissions, and Community Meetings
- November 7, 2023 Clackamas County Pedestrian and Bikeway Advisory Committee (PBAC)
- November 6, 2023 Citizen Involvement Committee (CIC)
- October 26, 2023 Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PRAC)
- October 24, 2023 Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC)
- September 25, 2023 Planning Commission
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Dayna Webb
City Engineer
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Christina Robertson-Gardiner
Senior Planner
Glossary of Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Complete Streets |
Complete Streets are streets designed and operated to enable safe use for all users. Those include people of all ages and abilities, regardless of whether they are traveling as drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, or public transportation riders. |
| Active Transportation |
Active transportation is self-propelled motion or getting around using human power, whether you are walking, cycling, jogging, skateboarding, inline skating or traveling in a non-mechanized wheelchair. |
| Shared Use Path |
Shared paths are paved, off-road facilities designed for travel by a variety of non-motorized users, including bicyclists, pedestrians, skaters, joggers, and others. Design widths may vary depending upon the location and anticipated use. |
| MMA (Multimodal Mixed Use Area) |
The Multimodal Mixed-Use Area (MMA) designation was established as a way for Oregon cities to identify appropriate areas for compact, walkable, mixed-use development and where some state traffic restrictions can be lifted to help achieve these goals. (ODOT) adopted by Oregon City in 2014 |
| STA (Special Transportation Area) |
A highway segment designation that may be applied to a highway section that also functions as a downtown main street, characterized by low posted speeds and types of commercial or mixed land uses that benefit from pedestrian traffic, on-street parking and other amenities. (ODOT) adopted by Oregon City in 2014 |
| Viaduct | A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across terrain features and obstacles. Mcloughlin Blvd between 10th and 8th Streets is a viaduct structure built in the early 1940s. |
| tumwata village |
In 2019, The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde purchased the former Blue Heron Paper Mill. They are currently working on their vision and Master Plan for the site. https://www.tumwatavillage.org/ |