ASTORIA DRAFT TRANSPORTATION PLAN

Over the past two years, City of Astoria staff and an appointed Transportation Advisory Committee have been working on a draft 20 year transportation plan.  On Monday night the Astoria City Council heard a presentation on the plan from Chris Maciejewski (Mah-JESS-key)  of DKS Associates, a Portland transportation planning and engineering firm hired by the city. 

In his presentation, he identified top concerns planners and Astorians identified in a series of community meetings.  With an Astoria bypass (connecting Oregon Highway 20 and 101 business with U.S. Highway 30.), not likely to be funded in the next 20 years, one alternative citizens and planners are considering is whether some downtown streets should be changed from their one-way designations.  Other considerations are how to improve cross town traffic flow and improve pedestrian safety and traffic flow on Marine Drive west of the downtown center and in the downtown core. The area of Commercial and 8th Streets has been identified as having the most congestion and traffic accidents. 

Maciejewski suggested more citizen involvement in whether to restore more two way traffic to downtown streets.  To do so would necessitate an upgrade of traffic signaling equipment on the state highway corridor.  Council member Drew Herzig asked for cost estimates for both scenarios, making one way to two way changes, and leaving the traffic flow as is.

Council member Russ Warr said he had heard ODOT estimates for the upgrades were in the area of one and a half million dollars. Maciejewski clarified required signaling upgrades would need to be implemented in any case.  Additional costs for a two way conversion might not be too much more. Community Development Director Brett Estes, a member of the Transportation Advisory Committee added there would be another advantage in making the cost studies.

Estes:  “Just to clarify something I think may have caused some confusion – you’re saying that we need to include the upgrading of the signals in the plan.  That right there would actually provide a place holder for us to be able to receive state funds in the future if we include that in the plan”.

Maciejewski agreed and said having specific projects in the plan would make it competitive for possible funding.

Another specific proposal included altering Marine Drive, currently a four lane road, to reduce the number of lanes to three, including a dedicated turn lane plus bike lanes.  The change would allow enhanced pedestrian crossings, with potentially some islands in the center.  The road width would likely remain the same, with only one vehicle lane in each direction, leaving more space for pedestrians and bikes. 

Mayor VanDusen then expressed concern about commercial traffic and the proposed lane changes.

VanDusen: “Well that part concerns me a lot because for large trucks going on those lanes its very narrow now and that street has a crown to it so that tall trucks lean to the side and they’ll hit the power poles and the signs now.  If we narrow that…”

Maciejewski: “So the actual lane a truck would be in, a single lane, could be wider…”

VanDusen:  “So two lanes to one lane but that one lane might be wider…”

Maciejewski:  “Definitely.  So if there are 12 foot lanes right now it may end up being a 14 foot wide lane.”

VanDusen:  “ That’s what I was hoping for.  That’s good.”  

Maciejewski  acknowledged the change would result in somewhat more traffic congestion but simulation models indicated although capacity would be somewhat reduced, gridlock would not result.

Other safety improvement elements include the installation of sidewalks and street crossings on Highway 202 by Astoria High School.  Roadway street lighting could also be improved. 

A citizen recommendation calls for a continuation of lane reductions through the S curves at  8^th and Commercial,  with the traffic signal moved to 10^th Street.   

In the area of Niagra and 7^th, physical space on the street could be changed to reduce speeds, perhaps with mini-roundabouts or curb extensions. 

Further highlights of the draft plan include an extension to Irving Street. The extension could provide an alternate highway route on the east side of town near Emerald Heights.  City officials noted that ownership of streets in the area would have to be determined before moving forward.

Federally-owned streets in the Tongue Point area are in need of upgrades to city standards.

Bond Street in the slide area could be re-opened to two-way traffic with the addition of traffic calming measures to ensure residents safety.

In all there are128 projects are in the plan. Almost a third deal specifically with bicycle travel, another third address motor vehicle or truck movements, with 20% for walking and 15% for crossings.  Maciejewski explained costs for the draft plan proposals vary with the complexity of the projects.

Maciejewski:  “When you turn around and consider – what does it all cost and how does that break out by mode, that one third of the costs for driving become 75% of the costs for the plan.  The 15% of projects that are crossing projects only cost about 1% of the value of the plan.  There’s a reason for that and that is if you go about putting in a crossing, putting in signs, putting in striping, even doing something with curbs, its relatively cheap compared with putting in an entire street corridor with grading, foundations and the whole infrastructure, so the real big projects dominate the costs for the plan.  So what does that mean for the city?  What can you afford out of all this?  Of the 120 projects that are in there, almost 45 million dollars, looking at the revenue streams that you’ve been obtaining over the past 5 years on average, there’s about 6 million dollars of the 45 million that the city probably has coming in with your current revenue streams.  So what that means is there’s a lot of work to be done, to partner with ODOT, to partner with the other agencies to look at additional revenue stream opportunities and see if you can go beyond that small portion that’s likely to be funded and see how much of this you can do over 20 years.” 

Monday night’s presentation to the city council was of a draft plan only.   Final recommendations will be sought from the planning commission and transportation advisory committee later this month before initiating the adoption process.