PBOT slide. Note that NE Broadway would have one fewer travel lane after the redesign.
Project location. (Graphic: PBOT)
Tucked into President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was a new, $3.2 billion infrastructure program specifically tailored to fund projects that make biking and walking easier and safer in underserved areas where existing facilities, “create barriers to community connectivity.”
The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation thinks North/Northeast Broadway and Weidler between 7th Avenue and the Willamette River fits that bill. They plan to apply for $25-30 million in federal funding through the USDOT’s Neighborhood Access and Equity (NAE) Grant Program. According to a presentation shared by PBOT, the project would extend east and west of the surface street changes the Oregon Department of Transportation has planned as part their I-5 Rose Quarter project.
PBOT Planner Mike Serritella told members of ODOT’s Historic Albina Advisory Board at their August 22nd meeting that the NAE program is a “once in a generation opportunity” to get this project built because Democrats in Congress are pushing out huge grant allocations while they have power in the Senate and White House. Serritella said USDOT has combined five years of NAE program funding into one tranche. Another reason PBOT is eager to apply? The program does not require any local matching funds.
(PBOT slides)At its widest point (adjacent to Moda Center and Memorial Coliseum), North Broadway is 96-feet from curb-to-curb (widest street in the central city) and presents significant safety and livability issues for everyone traveling through the corridor. It’s a major bike route and has a long history of right-hooks and high-stress encounters. Currently the bike lane is unprotected and riders pedal next to 3-4 lanes used by drivers.
The ink on PBOT’s application isn’t dry, but when they submit it by the end of this month, it will include a funding request of $25 to $30 million to build protected bike lanes, new crossing treatments, add street trees, street lighting, and more. Serritella mentioned “reimagining N Larrabee” and making safer connections north of Broadway.
These new bike lanes would connect directly to 7th Avenue, the carfree Blumenauer Bridge, and recent changes made to strengthen the Lloyd-to-Woodlawn Neighborhood Greenway.
2010 photo looking east on N Broadway. NOTE: PBOT has since added a painted buffer to the bike lane. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
N Broadway looking toward Willamette River. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Existing condition on NE Broadway and 3rd. (Compare to lead graphic.)In addition to complementing surface street changes that are likely to come with the I-5 Rose Quarter project, PBOT is mindful of the Albina Vision Community Investment Plan, whose first project — a 94-unit affordable housing development — broke ground August 22nd. One of PBOT’s project goals is to make N/NE Broadway-Weidler a “more human-scaled environment” that can “honor the district’s history through public realm elements including public art, urban design, and monumentation.”
With uncertainty around the I-5 Rose Quarter project Serritella told the city’s freight advisory committee this morning that their intention is to, “Create a project that is flexible and somewhat modular with the Rose Quarter project… something that can come concurrently, ahead of, or after the Rose Quarter project — depending on their ability to secure funding.”
Serritella said if all goes according to plan, Broadway would be transformed into a “civic main street” that “knits neighborhoods together” and where he’d be able to take a pleasant walk with his young child from NE 7th to Waterfront Park.
The deadline for NAE grants is October and PBOT says they expect a decision in about six months.
