This page keeps you up-to-date on the progress of the project through weekly updates. Every week we take you inside the inner workings of our team - what we are up to, who we have spoken to, progress made, and issues resolved. Occassionally we'll ask local officials, business owners, and residents to share their thoughts about transportation in Seaside. And we will always be taking your comments and questions. Check back every Friday for a new update!
March 5, 2010 The TSP team will meet with Seaside City Council and Seaside Planning Commission at a joint worksession at the end of this month. This meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 29th at 6:30 p.m. It will be held at City Hall, in Council Chambers. The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss the team’s revised bicycle and pedestrian recommendations for Wahanna Road, featuring a continuous, flexible 10’ boardwalk along the west side of Wahanna Road. The team will also begin a discussion with Council and Planning Commission about costs. We have developed “planning level” cost estimates for each of the Seaside TSP recommendations – roadway, bicycle, pedestrian, and transit. Planning level means that costs are based on length and unit cost, as very little engineering work to verify cost details has been done at this phase. We will post materials to this site closer to the meeting date. Please consider attending this meeting if you are able – we look forward to a great discussion about plan costs and recommendations. On other news, we have selected a cover for the forthcoming Draft TSP. Click here to see what it looks like, and send us an email to let us know what you think.
February 26, 2010 A couple of weeks ago, the City of Seaside, Clatsop County, and ODOT met to discuss the role of Wahanna Road in the TSP. At that meeting, the group acknowledged the importance of this road as an alternate north/south route to US 101 for local residents, as well as the constrained right-of-way for this mainly residential corridor. As a result of that meeting we have created another option for the proposed improvements map that we showed you at the last Community Meeting. The new option focuses on flexible pedestrian and bicycle improvements along the entire segment of Wahanna Road, in the form of a continuous 10’ boardwalk on the west side of the road. This new option retains or narrows the amount of space devoted to cars along Wahanna Road. Instead, any expansions would be specifically for the boardwalk concept, which would accommodate northbound and southbound bicyclists and pedestrians. The boardwalk has greater flexibility than a typical sidewalk, by being adjacent to the road or adjusting its grade consistent with adjacent lands. On the eastern side of Wahanna Road, pedestrian and bicycle treatments would vary depending on available right-of-way, between a 3’ shoulder and a 5’ bicycle lane with a 10’ sidewalk. The PMT will be discussing this new concept next week. Once the concept is refined we will post it to this website for your review, will discuss it with the Seaside City Council and Planning Commission at a joint worksession, and with the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners at a regular meeting (to be scheduled). If you have thoughts or ideas, please send us a comment.
February 23, 2010 Guest post from Kevin Cupples, City of Seaside Planning Director
Importance of Seaside’s Bridges Seaside faces a number of unique transportation challenges and successfully crossing our local waterways is one of the most complex. In Seaside, to travel across town in an east-west direction, all trips must be funneled over bridges that cross the Necanicum River and Neawanna Creek. In addition to their conventional transportation role of transporting people and goods, Seaside’s bridges provide an important emergency evacuation route for people located within the tsunami inundation zone. The City has replaced and seismically upgraded four of its local bridges in an effort to improve our east-west travel routes; however, there are six more bridges (four city, one county, one state) that help provide access across town. In addition to these existing crossings, the TSP is recommending a new bridge crossing over Neawanna Creek near 24th Avenue. The plan also envisions the development of three additional bridges that would be designed exclusively for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. We believe these additional pedestrian and bicycle bridges will provide a variety of transportation benefits, including:
In the future, we hope these new bicycle and pedestrian bridges will become an added feature that will enhance the public’s enjoyment of Seaside while improving their ability to conveniently travel throughout the city.
February 15, 2010 Workshop Summary Sorry about the lack of a post last Friday – the long holiday weekend came a little early to the Seaside TSP team. This week we are pleased to post the finalized summary from our last community workshop. This version of the summary includes all those comments we received from you at the workshop itself, as well as the comment forms that you submitted to us after the meeting via mailing to City Hall and through the website. Thank you. We heard a lot of support from you for the “hybrid” highway alternative, so over the next couple of weeks our team will be refining that option to try and minimize the southbound queue at the north end of town, and develop (planning-level) cost estimates for widening US 101 between Broadway and Avenue G. It will take us a little while to work out these details, but if you have any questions in the meantime please email us. We are happy to share our findings with you as they are developed. Finally, our team met last week to talk about how to add safe and continuous pedestrian improvements along Wahanna Road while minimizing impacts to residents. One idea that came out of that meeting was a continuous multi-use path (or boardwalk) along the west side of Wahanna Road that could vary in elevation and alignment based on environmental and property constraints. This concept could be considered instead of shoulders, bicycle lanes, and/or sidewalks on both sides. Our team is developing that idea now and will write a post about it to this webpage on February 26th.
February 5, 2010 US101 / 17th Street Pedestrian Improvement Project Update You should start to see construction start up in the next couple of weeks near US101 & 17th Street! The project will build a new sidewalk in front of a section of Seaside's High School and a marked crossing and pedestrian island across the highway at 17th Street. In early January, ODOT gave Big River Construction the ok to start work on the project. Recently, Big River told ODOT they were expecting to start work on the site in mid-February and expected to finish by the end of March. Of course, like all construction work, this is all dependent on the weather. Don’t forget that any intersection (unless specifically marked as prohibited) is a legal crossing for pedestrians, whether there is a marked crossing or not. Under Oregon laws, a driver has specific duties to a pedestrian at a crosswalk, whether marked or unmarked. Oregon laws also affect pedestrians, too. But pedestrians are unprotected and vulnerable. Drivers can prevent terrible injury by being prepared to stop and yield no matter who has the right of way. Get more information about crosswalks. Remember that everyone is a pedestrian at some point each day!
January 29, 2010 Flooding on US 101 Clatsop County issued a press release today to announce their partnership with local cities, the Port of Astoria and ODOT to find a solution to the flooding on US 101 at Beerman Creek south of Seaside. As we have heard from you many times over the course of the TSP development, this flooding occurs nearly every year when heavy rains coupled with high tides send water flowing over the banks of the nearby Necanicum River and onto the roadway, causing traffic restrictions and even closures. According to the press release, more than a dozen high-water notices have been issued in the past five years and a number of closures – some for “low-profile” vehicles and, on two occasions, to all traffic – have been imposed, leaving motorists stuck with no convenient detours available. Read a copy of the full press release. We have also added the summary from last week’s community workshop to the website.
January 22, 2010 Thanks to all of you that came out to our workshop last night! About 50 people signed in to our meeting, which consisted of an open house on the recommendations we’ve made to date; a presentation on five highway concepts; and a workshop on the highway concepts and proposed improvements along Wahanna Road. See the article on the workshop in today’s Daily Astorian. Some of the comments we received about the recommendations are:
During the presentation, the City of Seaside, ODOT, and CH2M HILL discussed alternate mobility standards for the portion of US 101 that passes through Seaside, including five highway alternatives explored by the project team. The public was generally supportive of Alternative 5 (Hybrid Alternative). This alternative consists of widening the highway in the central core of Seaside, from south of 12th to Avenue G. It also improves key intersections along the highway including Avenue U, Avenue F/G, Broadway, 12th Avenue, and 24th Avenue. Written comments on the alternate mobility standards included:
If any of you missed the meeting, all of the material is posted on the website. Have a comment? Let us know!
January 15, 2010 Join us next week at the Transportation Workshop! We invite you to join us at Transportation Workshop #3, Thursday, January 21, 2010 (5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Bob Chisholm Community Center). The agenda for the workshop is as follows: 5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m. Open house to review bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and roadway recommendations 6:15 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Presentation on Alternate Mobility Standards for US 101 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Group discussions on proposed cross-section concepts for US 101 and Wahanna Road Please note workshop ends at 8:00 p.m.; previous week’s post listed an incorrect end time. This is the third community workshop for the project. At this workshop, you will have a chance to review and provide comments on recommendations for the bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and local street networks. In addition, there will be a presentation focused on the proposal for Alternate Mobility Standards for US 101, and alternative US 101 cross-sections. The last hour of the workshop will be devoted to group discussions focused on proposed cross-section concepts for US 101 and Wahanna Road. We invite you to participate in the entire workshop or drop-in at any time during the night (children are welcome too). Both City and ODOT staff will be available to answer your questions. We hope that you can attend the workshop and give us your thoughts on the recommendations and concepts for US 101 and Wahanna Road. However, if you can’t make it on the 21st, you can still send us your send us your comments and questions. If you miss the workshop, you may check back here on Friday, January 22nd to find presentation materials used during the workshop.
January 8, 2010 You are invited to attend the next Transportation Workshop We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. We want to invite all interested Seaside residents to review and comment on the US 101 concepts prepared for the Transportation System Plan (TSP) at our upcoming Transportation Workshop on Thursday, January 21, 2009 (5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Bob Chisholm Community Center). This is the third community workshop that we have held for the project and it will focus on the preparation of Alternate Mobility Standards for Highway 101, as well as the recommendations for the bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and local street networks. We invite you to participate in the entire workshop or drop-in at any time during the night (children are welcome too). Both City and ODOT staff will be available to answer your questions. The agenda for the workshop is as follows: 5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m. Open house to review bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and roadway recommendations 6:15 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Presentation on Alternate Mobility Standards for the highway 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Workshop on concepts for US 101 and Wahanna Road We hope that you can attend the workshop and give us your thoughts on the draft recommendations. However, if you can’t make it on the 21st, you can still send us your comments and questions.
December 21, 2009 Today is the first day of winter and the chance for winter weather is always possible. Be careful on the roads getting to your holiday destinations. We won’t have an update next Friday, but we will be back on January 8th. Until then, here are some useful links to check out before you travel. • ODOT's Trip Check – to determine roadway conditions before you travel • Holiday Highlights of the Oregon Coast • Seaside Chamber of Commerce, December Event Calendar • Seaside Visitor’s Association, Event Calendar Have a wonderful and safe holiday season! back to top
December 18, 2009 When we started discussing alternate mobility standards, it became obvious the project team needed to share this information with local residents, businesses owners, and a wider audience of facility users. There are many different users of US 101 through Seaside and it is important for ODOT and the City to hear feedback from all the interested parties. The project team has started reaching out to different groups to give them a chance to learn about the ideas, ask questions, and let us know what they think. The project team discussed alternate mobility standards with the Planning Commission and the City Council during meetings in October and November. We are now working on the next public workshop scheduled for January 21st so Seaside's residents and business owners can learn what is being proposed. In addition to these outreach efforts in Seaside, the project team is also reaching out to the freight community, Clatsop County, and the Northwest Area Commission on Transportation (NWACT). Members of the project team from the City (Neal Wallace & Kevin Cupples) and ODOT (Ingrid Weisenbach) presented the work being done on alternate mobility standards to the NWACT at their November meeting. The NWACT is an advisory group that is made up of local leaders representing Clatsop, Tillamook, and Columbia, and a portion of Washington county. The NWACT was interested in Seaside’s work and they will continue to follow the process. Earlier this month, the Clatsop County Planning Commission was scheduled to hear a brief a presentation on the project. Unfortunately, due to a full agenda, the presentation had to be postponed. We have rescheduled the presentation for January 12th so we can speak with them shortly after the holidays. Finally we plan to involve the freight industry. We will be working through ODOT's Motor Carrier to get the freight industry involved. As we meet with these various groups, we will share their reactions in upcoming updates. Questions or comments? Let us know.
December 11, 2009 The next Policy/Mode Workshop will be January 21st Attend our next Policy/Mode Workshop on January 21st from 5:30 to 8:00 pm (location to be determined). The focus of this next workshop will be to talk about Alternate Mobility Standards for the highway through Seaside. We will also talk about recommendations from the plan to date for the bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and local street networks, as well as Wahanna Road. Please add this event to your calendars, and stay tuned for more information!
December 4, 2009 The TSP team met with the Seaside City Council and Seaside Planning Commission at a joint Worksession this past Monday evening (November 30th) at Seaside City Hall. The objective of the Worksession was to continue the conversation about alternate mobility standards that the group started back in October. The focus of this past Monday’s discussion was on access management and land use. City of Seaside staff presented a preliminary overlay zone that could be considered for parcels adjacent to the highway. Similar to review processes that already exist for these properties, the overlay zone would provide clarification for developers about what is expected in a development application package. The overlay zone would encourage walking, bicycling, and transit trips, and look to locate accesses along the local streets instead of directly onto the highway, where possible. ODOT staff led a discussion about access management along the highway, describing the safety and mobility benefits that coincide with consolidating accesses and relocating them onto local streets where possible. The groups went through some potential access management tools that could be considered, noting opportunities and constraints along various parts of the highway through Seaside. It was noted that access management tools are considered when a property redevelops, or when a major improvement project is initiated along the highway itself. Figures from the meeting are located here and the memo is located here. The next step for the project team is to schedule a community meeting. We are looking at late January. Stay tuned as we will post the date, time, and location for this meeting next week. If you have questions about the material presented at Monday’s meeting, or comments about the project in general, please let us know!
November 27, 2009 Happy Thanksgiving! Our project offices are closed today in honor of Thanksgiving. Have a happy and safe holiday, and don't forget to attend our project work session with the Seaside City Council and Seaside Planning Commission, focused on access management and land use along US 101, on Monday, November 30th. This work session will take place at Seaside City Hall (989 Broadway) from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Please contact the City of Seaside if you have any questions.
November 20, 2009 The Project Management Team met this past Tuesday to review and discuss the access management and land use/ordinances pieces that will be presented to the City Council and Planning Commission on the 30th. To see the agenda for this meeting, click here. We hope the community weathered out this week’s storms safely. I know Tuesday was difficult getting to and from Seaside from the south (see picture below). Remember that one of the projects of the TSP is to explore ways to reduce flooding on US 101 south of Seaside.
November 13, 2009 This week, the team worked on several things that might not seem exciting but are actually very important to this TSP. 1. Access Management - This week our team finished preparing a writeup and some graphics that look for ways to improve mobility and reduce accidents on the highway through consolidating driveways (where multiple exist), relocating driveways, and in some cases closing driveways. As with any planning document, our team needs to be careful not to be overly prescriptive in an access management strategy, so the graphics focus on ways to apply a toolkit of strategies along the US 101 corridor. 2. Land Use - Another strategy to encourage walking and use of local streets is to prepare guidelines for development along the highway. This week our team revised a set of guidelines for a new land use “overlay zone” for the US 101 corridor in Seaside. These guidelines provide clarity about who is involved in the development review process, criteria for a completed application, and conditions under which a traffic analysis is required. We also provide guidance on development standards along the highway. 3. Cost estimates - Our engineers have prepared cost estimates for all projects that have been recommended to date. This week we received comments from ODOT and from the City on these estimates, and our team has begun responding to these comments. We will continue to refine this information and will present it to the City Council and Planning Commission at a work session November 30th, posting it to this website after that time. In addition, we will soon be scheduling our next community workshop where all thoughts on the highway will be the focus. Feedback on the meeting or work done so far? Send us a comment!
November 6, 2009 Next City Council/Planning Commission Work session is Set This week we scheduled our next work session with the Seaside City Council and the Seaside Planning Commission. This session will be Monday, November 30th at 6:00 p.m. The location is in the Council Chambers at Seaside City Hall. The focus of this work session will be on land use and access along US 101 in Seaside. The PMT will be going over ways to encourage land uses on the highway to use the local street network, for development to encourage more walking and bicycling trips, and highway design details that will improve safety and reduce congestion. The upcoming work session is the second of two meetings with City Council and Planning Commission. The first was held last month and focused on traffic flow through Seaside with alternate mobility standards. Please note – we are looking to schedule our next community workshop for next month (December) where we’ll discuss alternate mobility standards, as well as other discrete items from the TSP such as Wahanna Road. Feedback on the meeting or work done so far? Send us a comment!
October 30, 2009 The Seaside TSP project is exploring alternate mobility standards for US 101 in Seaside. To date the team has developed five alternatives for US 101 between Lewis and Clark Road to the north and Avenue U to the south. Each of the alternatives was analyzed using “typical weekday” traffic volumes. We have prepared a sheet that describes each of the alternatives in general terms, as well as their overall benefits and challenges. Our hybrid alternative (Alternative 5) operates better than the others in relation to minimizing impacts to adjacent residents and business owners while maintaining a certain level of mobility along the highway. This alternative is a hybrid of Alternatives 1 and 4 in that it widens the highway to two lanes in each direction between north of Broadway and Avenue G, while adding improvements to specific intersections as needed. We look forward to discussing all five alternatives with the community at our upcoming community workshop. This meeting will be scheduled in November.
October 26, 2009 This past Tuesday the Seaside City Council and the Seaside Planning Commission held a joint worksession to discuss the TSP. This is the first of two meetings we will have with Planning Commission and City Council this fall, and we are grateful to these decision makers for their time and guidance. Two members of our Project Management Team – Mark Winstanley (City) and Ingrid Weisenbach (ODOT) took the lead in reporting out to the groups on early findings from the alternate mobility standards work we are doing on US 101. Handouts from the meeting included a description of highway concepts that have been considered so far, the operations of one of these concepts, ODOT policy on mobility standards, the group’s overall workplan, and the study’s public involvement approach. Tuesday’s discussion focused on operations – how the transportation system functions twenty years in the future. The team is exploring alternate mobility standards – use of a typical weekday (the highest hourly traffic volumes for a day for Seaside’s “shoulder season” of April or September) instead of a summertime weekend, which would allow highway operations to exceed ODOT’s current mobility standards. Mark and Ingrid both stressed that you can’t look at US 101 by itself. In fact, the highway benefits from non-highway investments recommended already by the TSP. For example:
Important to this discussion is future land uses and access management along the highway. This will be the focus of our second worksession. We are scheduling this second worksession now and hope to confirm the date, time, and location on this site this Friday. Feedback on the meeting or work done so far? Send us a comment!
October 16, 2009 This past Tuesday (the 13th) we had a Project Management Team (PMT) meeting in Seaside. The focus of this meeting was to think about an upcoming workshop for ODOT, Seaside City Council, and the Seaside Planning Commission. This meeting will be next Tuesday, October 20th, 6:00 p.m., at Seaside City Hall. The focus of the workshop is for the PMT to share how alternate mobility standards could work for the US 101 corridor through Seaside, by presenting various concepts developed by the consultant team and that are being considered. The group also talked about possible land use and access management measures that could be included as part of the alternate mobility standards to ensure that the corridor will work as well as possible in the future. More discussion is needed for the land use and access management measures, and the PMT will be getting together again in early November to further that conversation. After the next PMT meeting, City and ODOT staff will present options to City Council and Planning Commission and organize the next community meeting. Comments or questions? Send us a comment.
October 9, 2009 Workshop Date Confirmed The Project Management Team will be reporting initial findings for using alternate mobility standards to the Seaside City Council, Planning Commission, and representatives from ODOT at a workshop on October 20th, starting at 6:00 pm at Seaside City Hall. The team will be presenting how various highway alternatives work under a specific alternate mobility standard for US 101, that of a typical weekday instead of a 30th highest hour. Typical weekday conditions in Seaside are represented in the spring (April, May) as well as the fall (September, October). The community is welcome to attend this meeting, and we will be posting all material to the website for our October 23rd update. If you can’t make it but have questions or ideas for the team, please send us a comment.
October 2, 2009 This past Tuesday two members of our team (Theresa and Jamie) were in Seaside meeting with community leaders and interested parties. The focus of these meetings was to discuss the potential for using a more flexible approach (through alternate mobility standards) to US 101 in Seaside. Some main themes from these meetings include:
The team will brief Seaside City Council, Planning Commission, and ODOT on work to date later this month – we hope to confirm the date within the next couple of days. This will be followed by a community meeting (Mode/Policy Workshop #3) also this fall. Over the next week the team will be organizing the dates for upcoming meetings and will post them to this site.
September 25, 2009 The technical team is exploring how the various highway options work if a few of the higher investment projects recommended in the TSP are not built. No, this does not mean we’re going back on any of the recommendations we already laid out for you – it means that money is scarce and we want to have the best sense of which projects are most critical for the overall flow of the system. So far we’re finding that some of these other projects are pretty important. For example, we see some issues at the north end of Seaside if the new connection at 24th is not built. Similarly, we see issues at the south end of Seaside if improvements at Holladay Drive are not built. Also, this week the team started looking more into land use and access along US 101. This is not necessarily to change things in the short-term, but more to look at providing more clarity to developers, the State, and the City about ways to maximize safety and minimize impacts to the highway when areas are redeveloped. We’ll talk more about this in future updates.
September 18, 2009 This week the project team developed a new highway alternative that combined elements of Highway Option #1 and Highway Option #4 (see last week’s writeup). This option considers a four lane highway from Avenue F/G at the south, to north of Broadway at the north. North and south of these two ends the highway would be a two- or a three-lane section with turn pockets on US 101 and on local streets as needed to serve traffic needs. This option operates fairly well when looking at an alternate mobility timeframe of a “Typical Weekday” scenario. See the August 22, 2008 update for more information. The team has already looked at this option with and without a possible extension of Wahanna Road. Next week the group will consider how the option operates with and without two larger TSP recommendations – with and without the combined intersection at 24th, and with and without the Holladay flyover. Two members of the TSP team will be in Seaside meeting one-on-one with community leaders on September 29th. If you would like to request a meeting with the TSP team, please contact us.
September 11, 2009 This week the Project Management Team met in Seaside to start looking at various highway alternatives using Typical Weekday highway volumes. See the August 22, 2008 update for more information. The group discussed four options: - one that retains a narrower (two- or three- lane) footprint through the center of Seaside - one that retains a two- or three-lane footprint at the north and south ends of Seaside - one that retains the two- or three-lane footprint throughout Seaside but adds turn pockets on US 101 at key intersections - one that adds turn pockets on US 101 and local streets at key intersections. Each of the alternatives assumed the set of other recommendations to the transit, bicycle, pedestrian, and roadway that we rolled out back in June/July. Because more discussion needs to occur for the “extension of Wahanna Road,” we analyzed how the highway would operate for all four alternatives, with and without that concept. Over the next few weeks the team will be working on two key tasks. First the group will analyze how the highway operates if two of the larger TSP projects recommended so far (new intersection at 24th, and the flyover at Holladay) are not constructed. Second, the team will also be looking at ways to encourage land uses and site development in a way that reduces the need for local trips to get onto the highway and organizes accesses with a focus on safety. What are your thoughts? Send us a comment and let us know if there’s anything else we need to be looking at or taking into consideration.
September 4, 2009 New Bus schedules attract record numbers of riders A recent Seaside Signal article discussed the recent 50 percent increase in bus ridership. Thanks to the direction of Sunset Empire Transportation District's Executive Director Cindy Howe, the transit agency has focused on providing service to commuters and students. With an increase in gas prices and the downturn in the economy, more Oregon coast residents are choosing the bus. The district has streamlined routes and created an express route between Seaside and Astoria. The schedules have been adjusted to get workers to their jobs by 8:00 am. Read more about the updated bus schedules (effective September 1st). Since these improvements have attracted so many new riders, Cindy reported to the Signal that "the district is ready to implement half-hour service during peak ridership beginning." This is great news for Seaside. Not only has the transportation system improved schedules and the frequency of bus routes, but the district is now in the process of purchasing 30 new buses. Five of these buses will arrive within a year. Additionally, the district is starting a program called "Mobility Manager" to help new riders get used to riding the bus. The program will be available for all users, including students, commuters, seniors, and people with disabilities. Plus, riders can now plan their trips on Google. And don't forget, the bus does not run this Monday, in observance of Labor Day.
August 28, 2009 This week we started thinking about what alternate mobility standards would look like in Seaside. We will be focusing on ways to analyze traffic conditions for a typical weekday (for Seaside, this is sometime in the spring or fall) instead of summertime. We need to consider several key areas that are outlined in the Oregon Highway Plan Mobility Standard Guidelines:
Finally, once we have figured out what we are looking at we will need to consider various things. These include:
We are developing a methodology which we will post to the website in coming weeks that will lay out our vision for incorporating alternate mobility standards in Seaside.
August 21, 2009 Oregon Department of Transportation Responds to Letter from City Last Friday we posted a letter written by the Seaside City Council that encouraged the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to consider using alternate mobility standards for US 101 in Seaside as a way of acknowledging two things: (1) That the City sees much higher traffic volumes in summertime than it does during most of the year (2) That the community chose not to support a project in recent years that would have widened the highway to meet mobility standards This week we are posting a letter from ODOT that was sent to the City congratulating them on the TSP’s progress and committing to “working together to find flexible solutions for US 101 through Seaside.” This letter, available here, voiced support for exploring alternate mobility standards along US 101 as part of the TSP. The next step is for the City, ODOT, Clatsop County, and the Department of Land Conservation and Development to get together and discuss how to explore alternative mobility standards. This will happen in early September. Until then, read the letter from Seaside, click here, or the the letter from ODOT, click here. As a reminder, the 28th Annual Hood to Coast Relay will be taking place on August 28th, with an awards ceremony in Seaside on the 29th. Learn more about the Relay here. You can check roadway conditions on ODOT’s TripCheck.
August 14, 2009 City Sends Letter of Commitment to Oregon Department of Transportation This week, we are posting a letter written and signed by the Seaside City Council and recently mailed to Jane Lee, Region 2 Manager at the Oregon Department of Transportation. This letter encourages the state to consider using alternate mobility standards for US 101 in Seaside as a way of acknowledging two things: (1) That the City sees much higher traffic volumes in summertime than it does during most of the year (a 60 percent difference between winter and summer volumes) (2) That the community chose not to support a project in recent years that would have widened the highway to meet mobility standards The use of alternate mobility standards (see pages 80-81) would mean “living with” greater amounts of congestion. Mobility standards are a term used by the Department of Transportation to describe how well the roadway or intersection handles the amount of traffic using the facility both now and in the future. Typical analysis looks at “30th Highest Hour” conditions – literally what the traffic delays are under the 30th busiest hour of the year – and designs projects to accommodate this volume of trips. See the August 22, 2008 update for more information. Operations are analyzed in terms of “volume to capacity” ratios – the volume of autos moving through an intersection vs. the capacity of the intersection. If an intersection were completely saturated, for example, the v/c would be 1.0. Mobility standards (see pages 73-84) for US 101 in Seaside are 0.80 at the north end of the city and 0.85 through much of the remainder of the corridor. Alternate mobility standards simply mean looking at something other than 30th Highest Hour. All findings would still need to meet certain performance standards and ultimately be tied to v/c. Two examples of alternate mobility standards could be looking at 100th highest hour, for example, or typical weekday conditions (for Seaside, May, September, or October). The Oregon Department of Transportation is expected to respond to this letter. We will keep you posted as this information becomes available.
August 7, 2009 28th Annual Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament Starts Today The 28th Annual Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament starts today and will continue through Sunday. Activities are planned for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm. Hosted by the Seaside Chamber of Commerce, the tournament is the largest amateur beach volleyball tournament in the country. Last year’s tournament had over 650 teams compete and it was estimated that more than 6,000 people watched the tournaments each day. This year is expected to be just as large, so be careful on the roads getting to, and around, Seaside. You can check roadway conditions on ODOT’s TripCheck.
July 31, 2009 The weather forecast shows that temperatures should be dropping in the next few weeks, but hot weather is still expected. For Seaside this means more visitors from the Willamette Valley, where temperatures have been over 100 degrees the past week. Also, "Variable Message Signs" (similar to those electronic signs used for road construction) have been placed at several locations - John Day bridge on Highway 30, Humbug Maintenance on Hwy 26, and Cannon Beach hill (Northbound) on US101 - to help notify traffic coming into the north coast area (Astoria & Seaside) of congestion. The idea is to get people to slow down and pay attention before they unexpectedly come up to stopped traffic, which often results in rear-end crashes. Please check these links for more information to survive the summer heat and traffic congestion!
Have a wonderful and safe weekend!
July 24, 2009 This week we received some additional input on the draft TSP recommendations. Some of the feedback we received included:
“I suggest changing the classification of 12th between the Prom and Necanicum Drive from major collector to minor collector. Actually even better would be to change it from Holladay to the Prom. It is safer now with cars being forced to go slowly when it is busy due to parked cars. Really a quite beautiful mix of modes the way it is now. Up at the north end, build something closer to Alternative 1D instead of 1C – relocate the school and construct a new road south of 24th Avenue that connects with Holladay. Grade separate US 101 at Broadway instead of at Holladay. Create underpasses at Broadway, Avenue A, and Avenue B, with a signalized intersection at 1st Avenue. Extend Lincoln north to meet 1st Avenue. Dead-end Oceanway Street at the west end. Put in a connection between Highland and Rippert for emergency access. Make Wahanna Road the minimum width for its classification (two travel lanes, bicycle lanes, sidewalks). Make Columbia Street a Major Collector and Downing Street and Beach Drive local streets.”
Thanks as always for the great input on the plan. If you wish to add your comment or respond to comments you have seen on the website, please click here. We will continue to take your thoughts and ideas as we revise solutions and begin focusing on US 101 solutions.
July 17, 2009 What we’ve heard about the draft recommendations
We’ve been hearing a lot of great comments about the draft recommendations and wanted to thank everyone who has sent in their ideas, questions, and suggestions. Since the recommendations started getting posted on the website, we’ve had more than 300 visitors and received about 30 comments. If you have something that you would like to tell us, please send your comments today.
Here are some of the comments that we’ve heard:
“I'd like a map published and distributed throughout the city, to the Chamber, businesses, vacation rentals, etc., of the city's bike paths. If the city doesn't have designated bike paths, then this is to request such, as cities that do are very enjoyable to visit. I know about the prom and the city streets, but what about by the mill ponds, or around the east part of the city?”
“Please keep us informed of hearings or open houses etc, concerning roadway modifications at our office in Seaside. I'm very concerned with the recommendations that would take part or all of our office building for road construction.”
“I love the idea of a tourist oriented bus around Seaside. Also, I'd love to see (and use) a DIRECT commuter bus (3-4 stops max) from Cannon Beach to Seaside to Astoria in the morning and evening.”
“Create four family-safe, inter-connecting, walking/biking loops:
“I'm very happy about the proposed high ground connector pathway from Lewis & Clark to Wahanna Rd. The road is treacherous for walkers and bikers. It should be widened, but this bike path would help. I’m also very happy about connecting Lewis & Clark with 24th via a bridge.”
“Locate bike lock-up areas at the Goodman, Quatat, Seltzer, Broadway, and Estuary Parks, plus at businesses that want to attract bicyclists.”
“Please do not enlarge Highway 101 and take away our parking lot. If you take away our parking, you will render our commercial rentals un-rentable.”
How it changed the recommendations
We have already started revising and changing the draft recommendations based on what we’ve heard from the public. While not all of the public suggestions can be included, we want to make sure that Seaside citizens help decide what the city looks like in the short and long term.
Here are a few of the items we have changed, based on comments from the public.
North Wahanna Road and Highway 101
We’ve received a few comments about Wahanna Road, both from those concerned about their property and those interested in seeing better bike lanes and sidewalks added to the street. The draft concepts for Wahanna and Highway 101 are still being discussed. When more information is available, we will share it with you here and ask for your comments, thoughts, and concerns.
Until then, please continue to tell us what you think about the draft recommendations. Send us your questions, comments, or suggestions today.
Remember, a third community workshop (date, time and location to be determined) will be held to look at the revised recommendations and talk about changes to the highway, Wahanna Road, and Broadway
July 10, 2009 Week 6: Functional Classification Plan
This Friday is the final installment in a six-week series in which we rolled out the draft TSP recommendations. This week’s discussion is on the functional classification plan for Seaside. A “functional classification” defines a street’s role and context in the overall transportation system and how it is used by the community. For example, some streets are only meant for local traffic at low volumes (residential streets). View a description of the draft functional classifications for Seaside. View a draft map that shows the streets classifications. Each classification is tied to specific design standards. These design standards would be applied when new streets are constructed. For existing streets, these standards would be put in place if the road was reconstructed or large changes occurred to the buildings alongside the road. Road maintenance would not trigger the roadway to be built to design standards. View all of the potential street elements, such as lanes and sidewalks, that are possible for each classification. Draft recommendations that have been posted in previous weeks are still available. Future Workshop - A third community workshop (date, time and location to be determined) will be held to look at the revised recommendations and talk about changes to the highway, Wahanna Road, and Broadway.
July 3, 2009 Update from Ingrid Weisenbach, Planner at ODOT
In the midst of all the beautiful weather we are having in Seaside, flooding issues south of Seaside seem a million miles away. However, I wanted to give you a status update. We realize there are impacts to the highway when the low lying area south of town floods and have heard from many of you how the floodwaters on the highway impact you.
The first step to finding a solution to this issue is to understand how water flows into the Necanicum water basin when the area floods. Without understanding how the water flows, changes to the highway might create unwanted impacts on neighboring properties. When you change the highway, there can be a ripple effect on other aspects of the floodplain, often in unknown ways. A hydraulic model (a model that maps the water basin and shows how the water flows) would help us identify potential impacts, as well as different ways to protect the highway from flooding and the neighboring properties.
Last year ODOT, along with Seaside and Clatsop County, applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for funds to develop a hydraulic model. The Army Corps of Engineers is the agency that plays a significant role in floodplain management throughout the United States. They have the skills and resources to develop a hydraulic model as well as receiving federal funds called Public Assistance to States (PAS). We had hoped that this project would be selected for PAS funding; however, the Corps was unable to fund the hydraulic model this year due to limited funding, which only went to existing projects. Despite the Corps' interest in this project, the outlook for 2010 PAS funds looks grim as well.
In an effort to keep this process moving forward, ODOT has requested a cost estimate to develop a hydraulic model. Larry McKinley of ODOT is working actively with the Corps to obtain the cost estimate. ODOT is taking this issue very seriously and is working hard to find an affordable solution to this problem.
Once we know how much a hydraulic model costs, state and local officials can work together to seek funding. The potential for unintended impacts to property and species does not allow ODOT to make changes to the highway without a hydraulic model to guide those decisions, as outlined by federal regulation.
Finally, this weekend we will all be enjoying our Independence Day. Many people will be out on the roads. Make sure to slow down and be safe. Happy 4th of July!
July 2, 2009 Fourth of July Holiday Weekend
This holiday weekend, be careful on the roads getting to your holiday events and celebrations. While we aren't posting a draft recommendation this Friday, check back on July 10 for the functional classification draft recommendations. Until then, here are some useful links to check out. • ODOT's Trip Check – check traffic conditions before you travel • Complete 4th of July guide to the Oregon Coast • Seaside Chamber of Commerce, Event Calendar • Seaside Visitor’s Association, Event Calendar Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend! While staying at their family's vacation home, siblings Jerry Sappenfield and JoAnn Johnson, celebrated the Fourth of July on the promenade in the 1930s.
June 26, 2009 Week 5: Draft Transit Recommendations This Friday is the fifth in a series of six weeks of rolling out draft TSP recommendations. This week’s discussion is on transit recommendations for Seaside. The Sunset Empire Transit District has participated in the development of these recommendations over the last several months. Two maps show the transit recommendations; there is a printable map of the overall draft transit recommendations and a printable map of a potential Seaside trolley bus route and stations. Please contact us with your thoughts on these recommendations. The Sunset Empire Transit District's Theater Transfer Point is located on Hwy 101 and 12th Avenue. Draft recommendations that have been posted in previous weeks are still available. The final installment of the draft TSP recommendations is the functional classifications recommendations, which will be posted on July 10th. No recommendations will be rolled out next Friday due to the holiday, but please check back next week for general holiday transportation information. Future Workshop - A third community workshop (date, time and location to be determined) will be held to look at the revised recommendations and talk about changes to the highway, Wahanna Road, and Broadway.
June 19, 2009 Week 4: Draft Bicycle/Pedestrian Recommendations June 19th marks week four in a series of six weeks of rolling out draft TSP recommendations. And based on many of the comments we’ve received so far, this is the week you are waiting for! This week’s discussion is on bicycle and pedestrian improvements through Seaside. These include a mixture of bicycle lanes, pathways, bridges, and roadway crossing improvements. View a printable map of the draft recommendations. Please contact us with your thoughts. You can also view draft recommendations that have been posted in previous weeks. The schedule for remaining recommendation is as follows: June 26 – Transit recommendations July 10 – Functional classification recommendations Please check back next Friday to look at more recommendations, and to tell the project team what you think. Future Workshop - A third community workshop (date, time and location to be determined) will be held to look at the revised recommendations and talk about changes to the highway, Wahanna Road, and Broadway.
June 12, 2009 Draft Roadway Recommendations for South Seaside This Friday is third in a series of six weeks of rolling out draft TSP recommendations. This week’s discussion is on South Seaside (south of Avenue F) roadways. View a printable map of the draft recommendations, or read a short description of recommendations. Please contact us with your thoughts. The draft recommendations from previous weeks are still available on the Project Tasks and Materials page. The schedule for remaining recommendation is as follows: June 19 – Bicycle/pedestrian recommendations June 26 – Transit recommendations July 10 – Functional classification recommendations Please check back next Friday to look at more recommendations, and to tell the project team what you think. Future Workshop - A third community workshop (date, time and location to be determined) will be held to look at the revised recommendations and talk about changes to the highway, Wahanna Road, and Broadway.
June 5, 2009 Draft Roadway Recommendations Available (Central Seaside) Each Friday between May 29 and July 10 we will announce a different set of draft recommendations for the Seaside Transportation System Plan. This is the place to learn and comment on recommended bike and pedestrian, roadway, and transit improvements, as well as a draft functional classification plan, which will look at the hierarchy and use of roads in Seaside. Recommended concepts were generally those that met the following criteria: 1. Provided a benefit (in relation to our goals, objectives, needs) 2. Received support from the Project Management Team at January meeting 3. Received support from the community at the January 20th open house Draft Central Roadway Recommendations – Draft recommendations for Central Seaside (roadway) are now available! This area of Seaside spans between 12th Avenue on the north end and Avenue F on the south end. Please remember that these recommendations are focused on the roadways – we will be posting draft bicycle and pedestrian recommendations on June 19th. You can view a printable map (or click on the picture below for a larger version) that shows each recommendation, as well as reading a short description of these items. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us. Please check back next Friday to learn more and to tell the project team what you think of the draft recommendations. Future Workshop - A third community workshop (date, time and location to be determined) will be held to look at the revised recommendations and talk about changes to the highway and Wahanna Road.
May 29, 2009 Interested in the future of Seaside? Each week for the next six weeks, we will announce a different set of draft recommendations for the Seaside Transportation System Plan. From today until July 10, this will be the place to learn and comment on recommended bike and pedestrian, roadway, and transit improvements, as well as a draft functional classification plan, which will look at the hierarchy and use of roads in Seaside. Draft North Roadway Recommendations - You can view a printable map (or click on the picture below for a larger version) that shows each recommendation, as well as reading a short description of these items. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us. Recommended concepts were generally those that met the following criteria: 1. Provided a benefit (in relation to our goals, objectives, needs) 2. Received support from the Project Management Team at January meeting 3. Received support from the community at the January 20th open house Future Workshop - A third community workshop (date, time and location to be determined) will be held to look at the revised recommendations and talk about changes to the highway and Wahanna Road. Please check back next Friday to learn more and to tell the project team what you think of the draft recommendations.
May 22, 2009 Presenting Draft Recommendations to City Council City of Seaside staff will be presenting draft TSP recommendations to City Council on Tuesday, May 26th. These recommendations include some roadway, bicycle, pedestrian, and transit projects. Concepts along US 101, Wahanna Road, and Broadway east of the highway will not be included. That’s because we’re still evaluating concepts along the highway, and because we want to have further community conversations about what Wahanna Road looks like. Finally, our team needs to refine what Broadway east of the highway looks like because the current options don’t sufficiently account for the bus zones in front of Broadway Middle School. We hope you will be able to attend the City Council meeting, 5:00 pm at Seaside City Hall (989 Broadway), Council Chambers. After the meeting the team will incorporate comments that we heard from Council, and will then post draft recommendations onto the project website for your review and feedback.
May 15, 2009 Bring back the trolley? One of the concepts you’ve asked us to consider from the beginning of our TSP work is to reestablish a circulator trolley in Seaside. The old circulator we understand had problems because of the size of the bus itself. Its large size limited what streets it could use and which destinations it could serve. We are revisiting the trolley bus idea with a smaller vehicle that could navigate the streets of Seaside. The trolley would be a rubber-tire vehicle but could look like a trolley. The photo below shows a trolley bus that serves a similar purpose in Boston. Photo of a tourist bus in Boston, Massachusetts (courtesy of freefoto.com) Right now we’re coordinating with the Sunset Empire Transportation District on a potential circulation route and service frequency. Any recommendation in the TSP would of course be contingent on funding and potential ridership, and this could be a medium- to long-term solution. Send us your thoughts on a trolley bus in Seaside. Do you like the idea? Who would ride it? Where should it go?
May 11, 2009 Rolling out the recommendations This last week the project team reached agreement on moving several TSP concepts into the draft recommendations stage. We will be rolling these out for your input at the end of this month. We are ready to recommend:
When you see these on the website, we would like you to write, email, or call us with your thoughts and input. We won’t move into final recommendations until after our next community workshop – to make sure that all of you have had time to review and respond – but we want to start getting your feedback now. In addition, there are a few concepts where we need further review and input before we are ready to make recommendations. These include changes to the highway (US 101), for Wahanna Road, and for Broadway east of the highway. Stay tuned to this website – all of the information will be here.
May 1, 2009 Functional Classification This week we began thinking about Seaside’s functional classification plan. A functional classification plan describes the hierarchy of roads throughout the city. There are generally three categories (arterials, collectors, and local roads) though within the arterial and collector categories we sometimes distinguish between “major” and “minor” facilities. General descriptions are provided below – we’ll refine these as needed to serve Seaside.
Access tends to increase as volumes and speeds decrease, as seen in the graphic below. Roadway classifications in Seaside help us define current and future connections and use and can help us determine where funds can be obtained (certain roadway classifications are eligible for federal funds). For the TSP, we will develop roadway design standards based on classifications.
April 10, 2009 What is taking so long? We’ve heard comments from a couple of people via the website wondering when you will see the draft TSP. So we wanted to take the opportunity this week to talk about schedule. After the last community workshop, it was clear that some elements of the TSP would be straightforward, whereas others would require greater coordination between the City of Seaside and the Oregon Department of Transportation. We began to realize that our overall schedule would need adjustment to allow for conversations and additional analysis to take place. The additional time allows us to maintain our original objective – to make sure that the TSP describes a vision that the City, the community, and ODOT can all agree with. What we're focusing on right now is how the highway looks in Seaside. As you know, the highway is very congested in summertime, yet a previous project that looked towards adding lanes to the highway was not approved by the community. Our team is looking at ways to develop a compromise solution that would improve mobility but isn't a full build-out solution. Part of this work is technical – we need to figure out how this can be done. It also includes figuring out how we evaluate any concepts that come out of this process. ODOT has standards regarding the design and operations for the highway. These standards have been developed over time to ensure that all users are safe. ODOT may need to consider developing alternative standards to recognize the unique context of Seaside, while still ensuring that all users are safe. We can not ask them to compromise on safety. There are limited examples to guide us through this process so we are entering into uncharted territory and this process can take some time. Currently these conversations are within ODOT. It is our hope that we can begin a dialogue with Seaside City Council, Planning Commission, and others to share with them this work. Once we have made progress on the highway issue, we will update our schedule for the remainder of the TSP project, including scheduling our 3rd community workshop.
April 3, 2009 - Guest Column Sunset Empire Transit District, Cindy Howe, Executive Director and Sarah Dailey, Executive Assistant Sunset Empire Transportation District (SETD) located in Clatsop County, Oregon will be receiving Federal Stimulus Funding in the amount of two awards, $465,224 and $125,000. The funds require no matching dollars and will support the purchase of replacement buses, paving of the operations bus parking facilities in Warrenton, new security fencing, security camera installation, portable bus washing machine, and facility improvements to both the Warrenton and Astoria facilities. The $465,224 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding was awarded based on a formula developed by the Oregon Department of Transportation Public Transit Division which included ridership and miles driven. The $125,000 ARRA award was through a competitive grant of more than 320 applicants, of which only 59 were successful. SETD’s application competed against those of 172 cities, 26 counties, 28 ODOT, 22 Parks and Recreation Districts, 11 Ports, 40 Rail projects and 26 other transit agencies for the funds. SETD is very excited by the opportunity to see stimulus funds make their way to Oregon and to Clatsop County. Buses ordered by SETD will be built at the new bus building facility in Woodburn, Oregon keeping Oregonians working and SETD staff is currently seeking bids for the work at the Astoria and Warrenton facilities and preference will be given to local contractors and vendors for the work. All stimulus funds require monthly reporting to the federal government and all work must be underway, or “shovel ready” no later than June 17, 2009. As the public transit agency serving Clatsop County, SETD offers an Express Route between Astoria and Seaside, City Routes, and Dial-A-Ride door-to-door service. The Bus is environmentally friendly and supportive of the local economy, operating on Biodiesel purchased from local supplier Jackson & Son Oil. SETD also formed a new community partnership with Western Oregon Waste (WOW), the local recycling provider. Recently WOW transitioned its recycling service to a comingled cart. Overall the change has been a positive one, but residents have found it cumbersome to recycle glass. Glass is not accepted in the comingled cart, and Astoria’s only glass recycle site was at WOW’s transfer station on Williamsport Road. SETD volunteered to offer the first downtown Astoria location. The glass depots are located in a convenient spot next to a bus shelter at the Astoria Transit Center. The depots are used more frequently than anticipated, prompting the district to add a third depot the second week they were offered. Initially the idea of the having the depots sparked concern for potential broken glass laying around, but that not been an issue, and WOW is very diligent in unloading them weekly. SETD also has other exciting news; they are a Silver Sponsor of the American Cancer Society 2009 Relay For Life Event. They will have two teams participating in the relay. The event will take place at Astoria High School on July 11-12th, and will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. SETD has planned two events that feature Relay For Life Fundraisers, including an Eggstravaganza on April 7th and Recycle Event on May 21st at the Astoria Transit Center. Ongoing fundraisers include Drive Away Cancer Wishing Well, Skunk Them! donation container, Coloring Contest and several internal contests for staff. According to the American Cancer Society 1 in 3 Americans are diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes, and 1 in 4 deaths are caused by cancer. Donations from Relay For Life provide direct financial support to cancer research, advocacy and education. The monetary goal for the Clatsop County relay this year is $82,000. SETD is happy to help with this worthwhile cause. If you would like more information about Relay For Life, please contact event co-chairs: Melanie Cawthon at (503) 738-9605, cawthonm@netzero.net, or Piper O'Brien, (503) 738-3169, obrienclan@seasurf.net.
March 27, 2009 As was the case last week, the Seaside TSP team has been performing ongoing technical work. In this weeks update, we’d like to highlight other transportation news related to the federal economic stimulus. Oregon has received $334 million in federal stimulus funds for transportation. The Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC), which oversees the allocation of Oregon’s transportation federal stimulus dollars, has identified several projects for the northern coast. Cities, Counties, Transit Agencies, and ODOT all submitted requests to OTC to fund projects with federal stimulus dollars. Sunset Empire Transit District has been awarded $125,000 for parking lot improvements, paving, striping, and the installation of security cameras. ODOT has been awarded $2,000,000 to repair and replace guardrail along several highways, including US 101. The Port of Astoria has been awarded $400,000 for pedestrian access paths (path lighting). The point of the federal stimulus funding is to spend the money relatively quickly, which means we can expect to see these projects constructed during the construction season of 2009 or 2010.
March 20, 2009 Some weeks the TSP team is just plugging away at technical work, and this was one of them. We are working right now on developing highway options that balance improving mobility while retaining livability. Indirectly related to our work, one member of the community asked us recently whether the Seaside TSP would address air service out of the Astoria Regional Airport. Although the airport itself is outside the Seaside study area, air service may help those longer-distance trips that are now using Highway 26 and US 101. We were as excited as anyone to report that SeaPort Airlines began offering commuter air service between Astoria and Portland this last week.
Thanks to a $3.6 million Connect Oregon II grant and federal funding, the airlines is offering three flights a day departing Astoria at 6:30 a.m., 10:25 a.m. and 6 p.m. Flights take about 35 minutes and use a nine-passenger, single-engine Pilatus PC-12 plane. Tickets can be purchased at www.seaportair.com or at 1-888-573-2767. Click here to learn more about the service.
March 6, 2009 As we've mentioned the last couple of weeks (see February updates), there has been some confusion about the future of Wahanna Road. The City of Seaside has written a letter about this topic. Please view this letter for more information.
February 27, 2009 A couple of weeks ago, we wrote that one of our possible TSP recommendations – the Wahanna Road extension project – would require an exception to the Oregon Statewide Planning Goals. We received a couple of questions about what that meant. To respond, we asked Laren Woolley, Field Representative from the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, to provide a description of that process. Guest Column - Laren Woolley, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development Here is a brief summary of his comments: Extending Wahanna Road to south of Dooley Bridge would trigger the Goal Exception process because it would build a new road in a rural environment outside the Seaside Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). The objective of the Exceptions process is that before a major infrastructure project is built in a rural area, you must must show that you have a transportation need that can’t reasonably be met through alternatives that do not require an exception and without impacting the rural environment. Some of the questions this process would ask include:
Before entering the Exceptions process, the City can undertake the following:
In conclusion, the TSP would undertake some of the above, to compile information to help in a future goal exception analysis of a possible Wahanna Road extension. The TSP can insure that key smaller improvements are made to the existing system, along with encouragement of alternatives modes and traffic management measures. If the city has shown substantial efforts on these systems in the short term, it will be much more likely that findings could be developed in the future to justify an exception for large improvement in rural lands, if needed.
February 20, 2009 We received a letter this week from Dave Langlo of the Wahanna Action Group with some concerns about concepts along Wahanna Road. Dave mailed a copy of this letter to residents of Wahanna Road, Lewis & Clark Road, and the surrounding area. Because the letter contained several inaccuracies, the project team wanted to follow up with some items of clarification:
We appreciate the opportunity to meet and discuss the TSP with the residents of Wahanna Road and Lewis & Clark Road. We hope that residents participate in the next public workshop this spring. In the meantime, if you have comments about Wahanna Road, or any of the other projects being considered in the TSP, please send us a comment.
February 13, 2009 This week the project team continued to compile the bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and local roadway recommendations based on feedback received during the January 20th workshop. One of the local roadway projects under consideration is the extension of Wahanna Road to the south. This extension would provide benefits to traffic flow in Seaside, but it goes outside the City’s Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). Under Oregon law, each city in the state has a UGB that separates urban land from rural land. Extending the roadway south beyond the UGB would traverse forest land and require an exception to one or more of Oregon’s statewide planning goals. The formal goal exception process would not be completed within the TSP planning process. How would the TSP address the extension of Wahanna Road? As part of the TSP process, the project team would gather and document information relevant to possible alternatives in this area which would require a future goal exception, such as a preliminary evaluation and feasibility, general alignment options, and any other supplemental information that will help in a future goal exception analysis. The TSP process would also include policies and implementation measures which outline the City’s desire to keep this opportunity open for further study and to identify the need to protect it. That way, in the future when the City and County are ready, they will not only have a significant information base to move forward, but they will also have measures in place to protect this opportunity.
February 6, 2009 We have updated the summary from our last workshop, since the comment period was open through January 30th. Also, we understand some comment forms were submitted to the City; we'll update the summary one last time when these are reviewed.
January 30, 2009 Where are we now… The project team has captured all of the feedback we received from Workshop #2, which was held on Tuesday, January 20th at Broadway Middle School. The workshop summary is now posted. Generally workshop attendees felt the project is going in the right direction. We were able to get clear direction from the public on pedestrian and bicycle improvements and local roadway alternatives they thought would be beneficial. People agreed with the recommendations to increase pedestrian crossings over Neawanna Creek and the Necanicum River for every-day use, but especially for emergency evacuation needs in the event of a tsunami. People favored connecting 24th Avenue and Lewis & Clark road with a 4-leg intersection at US 101. This would allow better east-west access and would address safety concerns at the existing intersections. It would also preserve left turns onto 24th Avenue which is important to the pet clinic on 24th Avenue, which receives emergency cases. Participants were interested in the extension of S. Holladay Drive and Wahanna Road further south as alternatives to US 101. People also favored sidewalks on Wahanna Road, but acknowledged that improvements may need to differ along Wahanna Road depending on potential impacts. People were also pleased to see recommendations to facilitate pedestrian crossings at US 101 around the Safeway, where a pedestrian fatality occurred last year. One participant felt that feedback he contributed at the first workshop had not been considered by the project team. His comments can be found here. People continued to be interested in what may be proposed for the highway, although no cross-sections were being proposed at this meeting. Some residents said they were concerned that 4 lanes were going to be proposed again for the highway, similar to the “Pac-Dooley” project. It should be noted that much work remains before the team is ready to recommend a preferred option for the highway. If you’d like to learn more about what was said and presented during the workshop, please see the workshop summary and the original workshop materials.
January 23, 2009 We were so pleased to see so many of you come to our workshop Tuesday evening. Thank you! Approximately 50 people signed-in to the workshop and provided feedback on the overall process as well as individual project alternatives for bicycle, pedestrian, transit, local roadway alternatives, and highway improvement ideas. The workshop attracted people who live and/or work in Seaside and from elsewhere on the north coast. Check the website next Friday for a formal meeting summary, but in the meantime, here are some highlights. People generally favored alternatives that proposed a left turn pocket on east-west streets, such as 12th Avenue and Broadway Avenue, at the US 101 intersections. People were also in favor of connecting Lewis & Clark Road and 24th Avenue across US 101 to address safety concerns and east-west connectivity. In regards, to combining Avenues F & G to create a new east-west street that crosses US 101, one participant wrote, “We definitely need this for cars and pedestrians.” Although people liked the idea of easing crossing US 101 with some new traffic lights, such as at Lewis & Clark Road and Avenues F & G, they expressed concern over adding too many traffic lights on US 101 as a whole, which could potentially slow down north-south traffic. We also heard many participants comment, “You’ve done a good job with this process and the posters are very clear,” which was great to hear. If you’d like to review materials we used for the workshop, they are located on the website. If you didn’t make it to the workshop, it is not too late to provide feedback. We’d like to hear what you think. Please send us a online or fill out a comment form and mail it to: Kim Jordon City of Seaside 989 Broadway Seaside, OR 97138 Materials are also posted in the Seaside City Hall Council Chambers. Please stop by sometime this month and take a look. Comment forms will also be available there. Thanks to all for your continued interest and participation; we believe your individual efforts will collectively lead to a Transportation System Plan that will serve the city well for years to come.
January 16, 2009 Attend the Second Transportation Workshop on January 20 This week the TSP team has been finalizing materials for next week’s public workshop. The focus of the workshop is for us to talk with you about the concepts developed for the TSP. These concepts, based on input received from the community at our November workshop. Have been developed by the team and evaluated against the set of evaluation criteria. At next week’s workshop, we’ll summarize their potential impacts and how well they addressed current and future transportation needs. We are looking for input from the community on which local roadway, bicycle, pedestrian, and transit improvements you think work best. We hope to get a sense of community support for certain concepts from the January 20th meeting, and to identify those areas where more discussion is needed before recommendations can be made. Similar to the November workshop we’ll have stations on: • Project Overview • Roadway Improvements • Highway Improvements • Bicycle/Pedestrian Improvements • Transit Improvements Materials for the workshop will be posted to the website on Monday (January 19th). back to top
January 9, 2009 - Guest Column Tim McGinnis, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you and your community. My name is Tim McGinnis, and I recently moved to the north coast from Bend to be the new Humbug section manager. When I accepted this job and moved from Bend, I was told my days of snow and ice were basically over and that our sand pile would last for two years. My first day here was in November and was spent working with the high water on U.S. 101 south of Seaside. Then, just a month later, the December storm hit. My six person crew and I were in the thick of snow, ice, falling trees and the storm aftermath for over three weeks. That sand pile lasted one week. What a way to get to know the area quickly. A few months ago, David Neys introduced himself as the new District Manager, overseeing the highways in Clatsop and Tillamook Counties. I report to David and am responsible for the highway through Seaside and up OR 26 to OR 103 (Fishhawk Falls Highway) cut-off. I have worked for ODOT since 2003. Previous to my time with ODOT I have worked with heavy equipment and construction for over 20 years. I have been a small business owner and operator, a National Guard member, and I did a tour of duty in the U.S. Army that took me to Grenada and Honduras. I look forward to getting to know this area and the unique challenges we face here on the northern Oregon Coast. In the little quiet time I’ve had between storms, I have gotten to learn about some of the issues facing the highways during high water events, particularly in the area south of Seaside where flooding creates a significant problem for travelers on U.S. 101. Any long term solution will likely be a long, expensive process because of environmental regulations, property impacts, and - most importantly - finding the funding for any improvement. ODOT, Clatsop County, and the City of Seaside are working together on the first steps toward finding a long term solution. As an immediate response to the problem, I want to let drivers know how to get up-to-date information. TripCheck has a camera positioned at the Beerman Creek area and includes real-time updates on the condition of the highway south of Seaside. Updates are also available by dialing 5-1-1 or (800) 977-6368 (ODOT). If you have suggestions or concerns, please feel free to email me (timothy.mcginnis@odot.state.or.us). I am working on the highway most of the time, so my response may not be immediate. I am committed to respond to questions and comments as quickly as possible. I look forward to working for all of you in the future.
January 2, 2009 Happy New Year! The Seaside PMT met this past Monday to discuss the performance of the various concepts being considered in the TSP. Right now we’re reviewing each concept in relation to the set of evaluation criteria we heard from you as being important. Several of the concepts show substantial benefit, including: • Improvements to US 101’s intersection with 24th Avenue and Lewis & Clark Road at the north end of Seaside • Improvements along Wahanna Road, 12th Avenue, and Broadway • Intersection improvements at 12th Avenue and Broadway • Combining Avenues F and G • Bicycle/pedestrian bridges across the Necanicum River and Neawanna Creek at Avenue F and Avenue S What the highway looks like remains our main challenge. This challenge centers on balancing a need for improving safety and mobility with a desire from all parties to minimize access and parking impacts. Our initial work comparing a “three lane” section (one travel lane in each direction and a center lane as median or left turn lane) and a “five lane” section (two travel lanes in each direction and a center lane as median or left turn lane) served as a beginning of the conversation. Now we’re refining the highway concepts, considering information gathered to date along with: • Hybrid option – where is added capacity needed? Where might one lane in each direction be adequate? • Improvements timeline – might improvements be made in stages focusing on smaller projects first? • Improvements to the local network – how to make shorter trips off the highway easier • Land use considerations – what do developments look like on and off the highway? • Other modes of travel – how can we make walking, bicycling, and riding transit more feasible? • Tradeoffs – what solutions will be accepted by all the project stakeholders including the community, the state, and the city? The PMT meets again next Wednesday January 7th to discuss improvements at the south end of Seaside, as well as the upcoming community workshop January 20th. back to top
December 19, 2008 While winter doesn’t officially arrive until this Saturday, winter weather is here. Be careful on the roads getting to your holiday destinations. We won’t have an update next Friday, but we will be back in January. Until then, here are some useful links to check out. • ODOT's Trip Check – to determine roadway conditions before you travel • Holiday Highlights of the Oregon Coast • Seaside Chamber of Commerce, December Event Calendar • Seaside Visitor’s Association, Event Calendar Have a wonderful and safe holiday season! back to top
December 12, 2008 - Guest Column Ingrid Weisenbach, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) I have been thrilled at the level of interest and participation shown by Seaside residents and business owners as we move through this planning project. When the TSP process started, I had recently moved to the north coast from southern Oregon and knew little about the transportation issues facing the area. Over the last year, I have learned so much from members of the community who have been willing to share their needs and concerns with me. We have held two public workshops for the TSP and these have been a great way for me to hear your concerns. I also appreciate all of the comments that have been sent to us through this Web site. If you have been reading our weekly updates, you know the TSP is now moving into the next phase of development. In this next phase, we will start to evaluate some concepts and how they address the problems previously identified. Some of these concepts have been developed by the project team, and some concepts have been suggested by you and your neighbors. As we discussed in the previous update, the consulting team and I met with technical staff in ODOT to see if any of the concepts had fatal flaws. At this point none of the concepts appear to have fatal flaws, though they all have strengths and weaknesses. This phase of the project is exciting as we start examining those strengths and weaknesses to narrow down the options and what will work and what will not work. Before the next workshop in January, we will develop a clear way to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the different concepts. This will help us understand what the trade-offs are for each concept. There are rarely perfect solutions, but together we can examine the concepts and learn what does work well and what challenges we face. One of the challenges we face in Seaside is flooding of U.S. 101 at Beerman Creek. Yesterday the Daily Astorian highlighted this issue in the newspaper. Until we find a solution, remember ODOT has a camera on site and you can visit www.TripCheck.com to get real time footage and updates on the condition of the road. As funding for projects becomes increasingly scarce, it will be important to have a clear community vision. Your involvement is critical to the success of this plan, and I hope you continue to stay involved. Thanks for all of your hard work. Ingrid Weisenbach, Seaside TSP ODOT Project Manager back to top
December 8, 2008 Tuesday we met with a technical review team at ODOT to discuss the various alternatives we are considering for the TSP. The agenda from our meeting is located here. The team included representatives from ODOT traffic, transportation policy, development review, roadway design, environmental, and access management. The purpose of this meeting was to find out whether any of the concepts we are considering in Seaside would be infeasible, to talk about additional concepts to be considered, and to identify where additional information is needed. The main findings from the work we’ve done so far include: • No concepts were “fatally flawed” and all remain under consideration • A three-lane section (one lane in each direction with a landscaped median or center turning lane) does not operate well • Improvements to routes parallel to the highway (Wahanna and Holladay) help accommodate local traffic, as well as improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians • Projects improving east-west and north-south connectivity also make a difference to overall traffic operations The conversation was useful and led us to some outstanding questions: • What do conditions look like outside the summertime peak? • How much congestion will be acceptable? • How do you improve traffic flow without adding too many new signals? In conjunction with physical transportation improvements, the team will also need to look at land use – encouraging travel outside the peak hour, encouraging development off the highway, and a network of bicycle, pedestrian, and transit improvements. Figures from our meeting and the universe of concepts can be found here. back to top
November 26, 2008 - Guest Column Cindy Howe, Sunset Empire Transportation District In May, 2008 I was invited speak at the Seaside Downtown Development Association breakfast meeting to share information and to hear what the folks in downtown Seaside thought about what we do here at The Bus. Although most of the attendees were strong supporters of The Bus, they felt that public transit was not being served to the level that it needed to be in the Seaside area. I told the group that I agreed and that in fact, we had been trying with limited success to get ourselves a seat at the table for the upcoming Transportation System Planning process that was being conducted by ODOT and the City of Seaside. The very next day I was contacted via e-mail by a colleague in the ODOT Public Transit Division directing me to the TSP website where I found survey results that had been conducted by CH2M HILL. They were trying to determine what highest transportation priorities should be addressed in the TSP process. Not surprising to me, the area of highest concern, second only to the Highway 101 congestion issue, was the lack of good public transportation for the residents of Seaside. Since that meeting, the Board of Commissioners and staff at The Bus have worked very hard to meet those transportation needs and I think we are doing a pretty good job. Some of our accomplishments include: • New service connecting Seaside, Gearhart and Cannon Beach with no transfers. • Express service between Seaside and Astoria, with stops at 101/Avenue A and 12th/Highway 101. • Simpler schedules and a more streamlined website. • Streamlined passes and tickets. • Direct service to Clatsop Community College for south county students, who now ride free with their student I.D. cards. • Service along Wahanna Road, Providence Hospital and Seaside Library. Other issues that The Bus is currently working on and hope to have in place in the next 12 months include: • More visibility and user aids for passengers, including bus stop signs, displays and shelters. • Increased presentations of “How to Ride The Bus” at local schools and organizations. • Transit Center/Daycare/park and ride facility in downtown Seaside. We are always open to suggestions and comments. Please see your driver for a comment form or visit our website or call us at 503-861-RIDE, 1-800-776-6406 for more information. back to top
November 21, 2008 We finalized the summary of our November 6th workshop this week. You can find the summary along with all the other material from the workshop, on the Project Materials page. Also, if you missed the article on the workshop in last week’s Seaside Signal, you can still get it online. This week we continued to develop alternatives for Seaside bicycle, pedestrian, transit, local roadway, and highway improvements. We are working pretty quickly as we need to be ready to present preliminary findings to ODOT at a meeting on December 2nd. However, we will continue developing and evaluating concepts until after our second public workshop. Speaking of which, we have scheduled a date and time for the second public workshop. This will be held on Tuesday, January 20th from 5:00-8:00 pm. Please save the date! We are confirming a meeting location and will post that when it is ready. So what do we do to develop alternatives? In planning, much of what we do is lay out typical improvement types over aerials to get a sense of what will fit within existing right of way, and/or what additional right of way would be needed to build the project. We also look at the concepts in relation to available land use and environmental data to see whether the concept is consistent with local and regional goals, and whether it impacts any sensitive environmental areas. Once we have this information, we conduct a preliminary evaluation. Questions that we will ask include: • Does the improvement address a known deficiency? • How does it perform? Does it do a good job of reducing traffic, increasing safety, improving connectivity? • Is there a simpler solution that will serve the same purpose? • What impacts does the concept create? • Is there room for the improvement, or will it require the purchase of some right of way? • How cost effective is the concept? How easily can it be constructed? If you are interested in learning more about how we evaluate projects, please read our evaluation framework. Cindy Howe from the Sunset Empire Transportation District will be the guest for next week’s update.
November 14, 2008 Moving Forward . . . The Future Conditions and Deficiencies Memo has been finalized. Our main objective this past week has been to sort through all the feedback we received from the community at last week’s workshop. I thought last week that I could post the workshop summary today. Alas, this has been delayed a few days because our summary is 13 pages long! This is good, it means we have a lot of excellent feedback. But I also promised to give the staff from the City of Seaside, ODOT, Clatsop County, and the consultant team that were at the workshop a few days to review the summary and add anything they heard that was missing from the summary. This means the summary isn’t finalized yet, but we will be in great shape to post it next Friday (11/21). So what happens next? The team is now focused on combining comments from the workshop with the initial concepts we have developed to date to prepare our “universe of options.” We will be asking our Project Management Team (PMT) to review this list of projects next week and will post it to the site when it is ready. Over the next few weeks our technical team will be developing conceptual bike/ped, transit, local roadway, and highway design concepts. We scheduled a technical review meeting with ODOT on December 2nd to discuss these concepts. The objective of this meeting is to find out whether any are just infeasible. This is always a key step in the process – we never want to get to the draft plan stage and find out that we have to pull a concept because it could never be built! Also this week we scheduled our next PMT meeting for December 17th at 2:00pm over at City Hall. We are working to schedule our second workshop for January and our third workshop for late February. The workshops will be from 5-8 pm and we’re still identifying a location. Any ideas? Let us know by posting a comment. back to top
November 7, 2008 Thanks to so many of you who came to our workshop last night. We had about 60 people sign in to the event and we are very pleased at the suggestions and concepts you gave as well as the feedback we received from you on our initial bicycle, pedestrian, transit, local roadway, and highway improvement ideas. We will be doing a formal meeting summary next week and will post this to the site next Friday, but in the meantime we wanted to use this opportunity to highlight some of last night’s activities. Some comments we heard: "When will we get a crosswalk in front of Safeway? My husband has been waiting for thirty years." "Liked the bus stops expanded through town with increased access to public transport. Hopefully bus times will increase too." "Ideas for maintenance of islands [landscape medians] – Pacifica Project, Senior Club Council, Southwestern Garden Club, Adopt-a-Highway Group, non-profits that receive money from the City as a community give back." "Like the roundabout at Lewis and Clark / Wahanna to alleviate church traffic." "Keep public input very open at all stages so we succeed this time." "Like pedestrian islands, they serve as a traffic calming feature, put in as many as possible/feasible." "Complete three lanes through Seaside. A center-turn lane helps with traffic flow. In regards to landscaped medians, Seaside already has a greenway on both sides of 101." All the material from last night’s meeting is located on the Tasks and Materials page. If you weren’t able to make it to the meeting last night, please send us a comment online or fill out a comment form and mail it to: Kim Jordan City of Seaside 989 Broadway Seaside, OR 97138 Starting Monday the project needs and project ideas maps will be posted in the Seaside City Hall Council Chambers. Please stop by sometime this month and take a look. Comment forms will be located there as well. back to top
October 31, 2008 - Guest Column Don Larson, Seaside Mayor and Eric Havig, ODOT Regional Planning Manager How you can help to improve transportation in Seaside We would like to thank the Seaside Signal for allowing the City of Seaside and the ODOT the opportunity to let the community know about the Seaside Transportation System Plan (TSP), and why it is important for residents to get involved in the process. Because cities, counties and the state are struggling to maintain our existing transportation system, state planning rules require all governments to create regionally-coordinated TSPs so that tax dollars are only spent on projects that meet established local and regional transportation priorities. The Seaside TSP will establish priorities and set the stage for future transportation improvements in the area. This is where you can help your community. We are asking you to lend your expertise to this project. Come to the first public meeting on November 6. Voice your concerns, ideas, and suggestions directly to the City and ODOT staff. The Seaside TSP is a joint effort among the city, county and state, because all of the jurisdictions are legally responsible for infrastructure that affects Seaside. It is that shared responsibility here and in other Oregon communities that has driven policy changes requiring much more collaboration in planning transportation projects - that is a good thing for all of us, because it ensures that our tax dollars are spent effectively. View this article, as printed in the Seaside Signal on October 30, 2008. back to top
October 27, 2008 Last week we talked about ODOT and the City of Seaside leading a station at the upcoming workshop, and we promised that we’d know who would be staffing this station by this Friday. The representatives will be Mark Winstanley, City Manager for Seaside, and Erik Havig, ODOT’s Planning and Development Manager. Both are looking forward to talking with the community about transportation! This week the technical team started pulling together some ideas for transportation improvements to discuss with the community at the November 6th workshop. Last week the whole team got together, and we were able to talk through bicycle, pedestrian, and transit improvements. We started this week by looking at the local roadway network and how it intersects with the highway. We came up with some preliminary concepts that are intended to improve safety and connectivity and reduce congestion. We met with our graphics staff to start illustrating these concepts for the workshop. Wednesday we looked at some draft sketches from our bicycle/pedestrian experts that illustrate their thoughts on sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and multi-use paths. The materials we’re pulling together now will be a starting point for the conversation about what the team should evaluate. We’ll have stations for: - bicycle/pedestrian - transit - local roadway improvements - regional (highway) improvements Remember to come with sleeves rolled up – we want your input! back to top
October 17, 2008 Two things to report this week. First, the technical team met on Wednesday (October 15) to brainstorm some ideas to discuss with the community at the upcoming workshop. We got our team of technical experts together in a room to consider potential: - Bicycle treatments - Pedestrian treatments - Transit improvements - Local roadway improvements - Highway improvements All the ideas we developed are conceptual in nature; we will wait to evaluate ideas until after we gather additional thoughts and ideas from the community at the workshop. The other thing we did this week was flesh out the content for the November 6th workshop. In addition to what we have already planned – a discussion of needs and brainstorming ideas for improvements – we also want to provide a forum for one-on-one or small group conversations with City and ODOT leaders. We heard clearly from our stakeholder interviews that the community wants to see ODOT and the City of Seaside working together. We have planned an area at the workshop where members of the community will be able to sign up for ten minutes with ODOT and City leaders. Talk about whatever you want to talk about! Ask questions. Or have them tell you what they hope to see out of the TSP. It’s your ten minutes. We are still working on who from the City and who from ODOT will be at this station, but we hope to have that nailed down by next Friday’s update. We’re excited about this concept, and hope you will be too. back to top
October 10, 2008 November 6 Public Workshop This week we started planning in earnest for the November 6th Public Workshop. We are preparing a series of maps called “Issues and Opportunities” that summarize what we learned from the existing and future conditions work we did over the summer, as well as what we heard from the summer assignment results, the stakeholder interviews, the first transportation summit, and the community survey. While there isn’t any new information, we hope it will be easier to digest than leafing through all the memos we have uploaded on this website. Next week the technical team is getting together to brainstorm improvements that could address these identified issues and opportunities. We plan to organize the improvements by transportation mode, including: - Bicycle - Pedestrian - Transit - Roadway – highway (segment) - Roadway – intersections - Roadway – local road connectivity - Other – visitor-oriented (parking, signage, etc.) Ideas generated by the team will be used as a starting point for discussions at the workshop November 6th. The format of this workshop will be for you (the community) to sit down with the City of Seaside, ODOT, Clatsop County, and the consultant team to talk through some improvement ideas. We are designing the meeting so you can drop by anytime between 5 and 8pm. Please see last week's update for more information. back to top
October 3, 2008 Community leaders talk transportation! We spoke to several community leaders in Seaside to learn more about how people get around and the need for improvements. Mayor Don Larson and City Manager Mark Winstanley identified some of the community leaders representing local developers, delivery professionals, local business owners, the hotel industry, news media, religious institutions, and the Seaside School District. What did we learn? Many community leaders pointed to the Pacific Ocean and the long stretches of sandy beach as Seaside’s best asset. As one person put it, “We live in a park, and cannot expect people to stop coming to the coast, but rather, we can learn to accept some traffic during the summertime, and try to make the travel experience better for all.” People interviewed were interested in considering the environment in design standards, including ways to make tansportation projects more environmentally friendly. Several said that they thought Seaside’s traffic problems were limited to a handful of weekends throughout the year. Most mentioned the area of US 101 near Safeway as a problem—pedestrians often try to cross the street at that point, but it is unsafe. Some pedestrians may not use the closest crosswalk because they feel it is out of their way. Many felt that there are ways to improve US 101 by addressing flooding that occurs at the southern end of town, adding traffic signals, and beautifying the highway with landscaping and signage. Many also identified 12th Avenue as a problem area — west of the highway people are allowed to park on the busy street, making it difficult to fit a car in each direction. People interviewed also indicated the need for sidewalks on Wahanna Road, Avenue S, and Holladay Drive north of Broadway. The feedback we received was very helpful. Please look at the Summary of Stakeholder Interviews Memo for more details. We’d like to hear more from the community at our upcoming transportation workshop: Thursday, November 6th Drop by anytime between 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM Broadway Middle School Cafeteria, 1120 Broadway St. (accessible by wheelchair) Mark your calendars! We hope to see you there! This workshop will be a ‘roll up your sleeves and grab a marker’ event. back to top
September 29, 2008 Date Set for Next Community Workshop! This past week we accomplished two important things. First, we met with 12 community leaders in Seaside. We are working on the summary of these meetings now and will discuss the highlights next Friday (10/3). The second thing we accomplished this week was to confirm a date for our next community meeting. This will be held Thursday, November 6th in the early evening (location announced soon). This meeting will be a workshop style, meaning we are asking members of the community to roll up their sleeves, grab a marker, and take a seat at the table with ODOT, the City of Seaside, and community leaders to finalize our discussion of needs, discuss how to evaluate improvements, and brainstorm ideas for transportation improvements in Seaside. This will be the first in a series of three workshops held in pretty quick succession. The project team will gather ideas generated by the community at the first workshop, draw up the concepts, and prepare an initial evaluation. The second workshop (slated for mid-December) will review, discuss, and weigh in on these draft concepts. The team will prepare revisions based on these discussions and prepare a set of revised concepts at the third workshop (slated for late January). Please contact the team if you have thoughts or questions on the workshop format. Please check back to this website in the coming weeks for the dates and location of the second and third workshops. back to top
September 19, 2008 Things are Moving Forward! We’re close to scheduling our next transportation workshop for the end of October and are just checking on possible locations before we post the date on this website. We hope to see a lot of people at the workshop, so please make a note on your calendars now! Just a reminder that this workshop will be a ‘roll up your sleeves and grab a marker’ event, where we’ll be working in small groups to: 1. Finalize our understanding of needs, with the benefit of our traffic analysis 2. Brainstorm improvements that the technical team will take back and develop We will be talking in groups around the three topic areas we formed back in June – connectivity, alternate modes, and bicycles. Right now we’re trying to understand whether people will be interested in all three topics (in which case we’d want to rotate groups among the three topics) or whether some people are more interested in just one topic area. We may just be flexible and see who is interested in what at the workshop, but email us if you have an opinion. Also, a status on our technical work. The existing conditions memo has been finalized. Technically we only have a few days left of summer so remember to complete the summer survey! And the future conditions work (preliminary findings shared in last week’s update) is going through the quality review process. This means that we are close to finishing the first phase of our project (understanding need). We are all looking forward to working with the community to develop ideas for improvements. back to top
September 15, 2008 What does the future hold? For the past few weeks, we have been exploring projected future traffic conditions in Seaside. This week we have some preliminary findings to share. What we are finding so far is that intersections along US 101 are expected to be very congested, and conditions at intersections controlled by stop signs are expected to be worse than intersections controlled by traffic lights. The projected congested conditions along US 101 point to a need for improvement in the future. I know this comes as no surprise to you, and it was expected by our team as well. One surprise, however, was the traffic counts themselves. The July counts we took, which were supposed to reflect summertime peak conditions, were lower than we expected. Why? The recent increase in gas prices has affected travel nationwide, which is down by approximately 4 percent compared to 2007 rates nationally. Similarly, we observed lower than expected traffic counts here in Seaside. A lot of transportation forecasting professionals around the state are working on a response to this observation. In the meantime, we are using the higher traffic counts with the assumption that even if the rate of growth in traffic slows, this slower growth would typically delay the need for improvements by only a few years, and does not mean that improvements are not needed at all. Join us at the upcoming Workshop to learn more! During the last two weeks of October, the project will host a Workshop during the evening that will focus on: • A review of the technical analysis that tells us system needs now and in the future; • A review of web survey results (paper copies were distributed at City Hall)—people told us in their words about the transportation system; • Brainstorming of solutions; and • A focus on local connectivity, pedestrian issues, and alternative modes of transportation, which were needs identified through the web survey and the Transportation Summit held in June. We are finalizing the date for the Workshop over the next few days, so please check back here next week to find out more. You still have a chance to complete the Summer Assignment, that allows you to share with us your general observations about the transportation system and pictures of things that work or don’t. back to top
September 8, 2008 - Guest Column Larry McKinley - Oregon Department of Transportation, Area 1 Manager Clatsop County STIP Open House My name is Larry McKinley and I am the Area 1 Manager for ODOT. I oversee all the projects that are currently in design or construction in Clatsop and Tillamook counties. ODOT would like to invite you to join us on September 10th at an open house to talk about potential projects that ODOT is considering funding. Road and bridge projects along Oregon’s highways are funded via the State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP). You often hear the term “STIP” utilized by ODOT personnel when talking about projects under design and in construction. It is the budget mechanism that funds all State and Federal highway projects. To have a major project placed in the STIP by the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) it must first be identified in an adopted Transportation System Plan (TSP). This is why it is so important for Seaside to have an adopted TSP. Without an adopted TSP, Seaside’s chances for getting highway improvement money are very limited. ODOT is currently preparing a list of recommended projects for consideration by the OTC for the 2010-2013 STIP. ODOT has seen a decrease in the amount of money ODOT has for projects. ODOT has also seen an increase in material costs, such as oil, concrete and steel. This has resulted in some projects being cancelled to make others whole. The area of Seaside is located within Region 2, which covers 9 counties. In 2010 – 2013, Region 2 is expected to receive about $11.5 million for modernization projects. latsop and Tillamook counties are forecasted to receive $1.5 million (out of the $11.5 million) to fund an environmental assessment on US 101 from Camp Rilea to Surf Pines. OTC Chair, Gail Achterman, at the March Commission meeting in Astoria stated that any major highway improvement projects (such as a bypass) will have to compete statewide for limited modernization dollars. This reemphasizes the need to focus our efforts during the TSP on transportation improvements of all sizes that can complete region-wide and statewide. Open House Details September 10, 2005 5:00 – 7:00pm Warrenton Community Center 170 SW 3rd St. Warrenton, OR Representatives will be on site to answer questions regarding upcoming projects and listen to your input. Public input is a key component of project development. Hope to see you there!
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August 29, 2008 - Guest Column David Nyes - Oregon Department of Transportation, District 1 Manager I would like to introduce myself as the new District Manager for northwest Oregon’s ODOT District 1 office in Astoria. The District office maintains, operates, and permits activities on the State Highway System. I have worked in highway operations and maintenance for about 30 years and look forward to this new opportunity and a chance to meet with you about transportation issues. I am from the Bend District office in Central Oregon where I had the opportunity to deal with growth and transportation related challenges in a booming area. I know that there is a lot to do, and I’m looking forward to trading my snow boots for a rain suit and getting my feet wet. Having experienced growth issues in the Bend area, I am ready to face similar challenges in Astoria. Working together will build successful partnerships. Similar to the pioneers on the Oregon Trail (who did not cross the country on their own, one wagon at a time) we will rely on a group of diverse people to help one another solve transportation challenges. I like to think we are still pioneers working together to move goods, services, and citizens through our communities so that future generations can continue to enjoy what we have been given. The Seaside TSP is one way that we can create the vision for future transportation in Astoria and help guide these partnerships. Without this documented vision, present and future generations may struggle to interpret what the transportation system should look. I will enjoy seeing this vision become reality and want the citizens of Oregon to be proud of what we have done. I am committed to helping us succeed, because we need to pass our vision to the next generation of transportation planners and citizens. Your hard work and commitment is very much appreciated. Thank you for this opportunity to introduce myself, if you have any questions or concerns with ODOT Operations and Maintenance, or just want to say hi, please give me a call at the District Office. If we can’t answer your transportation question, we will find someone who can. David J. Neys District Manager Oregon Department of Transportation 350 W. Marine Drive Astoria, OR 97103 Office (503) 325-7222 Fax (503) 325-1314
August 22, 2008 What does 30th Highest Hour mean? All the technical traffic work we do for the Seaside TSP, and for many transportation planning projects in Oregon, is done for the 30th Highest Hour. We use this term a lot, but rarely is there as good an example of what we’re talking about as what is coming up this weekend in Seaside. The 30th Highest Hour is technically exactly what it says. We don’t do our analysis for the highest hour of traffic volume during a given year or time period. We also do not do our analysis for a typical traffic condition. Rather, we pick the 30th Highest Hour condition. This standard tries to get at those heavy traffic conditions that are not extraordinary. An example of an extraordinary traffic condition would be tomorrow, when the Hood to Coast runners and the Portland to Coast walkers descend in Seaside. This event is the largest relay race in the world, with over 12,000 runners and close to 5,000 walkers, combined with more than 3,500 volunteers, all finishing the race right at the Prom in Seaside. Participants are in teams, but those teams travel in vans when they are not running or walking. This means a lot of traffic for Seaside. It is likely to be Seaside’s #1 Highest Traffic Hour of the year. Typically we don’t tend to want to design our improvements to serve one event. If we did, it could mean a lot more paving than anyone – the City, the state, or the community – would be willing to support. The 30th Highest Hour captures what traffic is like during regular heavy traffic periods. For the Oregon coast, the 30th Highest Hour tends to be a Friday afternoon or a Sunday afternoon in the month of August. The work that you’ve seen to date and what we’re continuing to work on in September looks at what problems are observed in Seaside during the 2008’s 30th Highest Hour, as well as what we anticipate issues to be in 2030’s 30th Highest Hour. This all serves as the basis for the project improvements.
August 15, 2008 - Guest Column Kevin S. Cupples, AICP - City of Seaside, Planning Director A Transportation System Plan (TSP) is a long range planning document (a twenty year plan) that guides the identification of and investment in future transportation facilities and services. TSPs are produced to meet State and regional planning requirements and to address local transportation needs for cost-effective highway, street, transit, freight, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements. The City of Seaside’s TSP will serve as the transportation element of our local comprehensive plan and it is intended to provide a balanced transportation system that supports livability and economic growth. Since land use and transportation are inextricably linked, the Seaside TSP will allow us to take a broad look at future system needs instead of making all decisions on a case by case basis. This is important because it helps anticipate potential development impacts and plan improvements where they are needed the most. If Seaside continues to grow without any improvements to the transportation system, the system will ultimately fail. The TSP will support proactive measures that are intended to avoid the failure all together. From a public investment standpoint, planning to avoid failures is generally less costly than attempting to fix the system after a failure has occurred. Furthermore, the plan itself is often used to leverage public funding sources that can help offset the costs for needed improvements. In other words, without a TSP, some necessary projects simply won’t qualify for grant funding programs. The City of Seaside is continuing to grow, and that growth will continue to place demands on our current transportation infrastructure. Through public participation in the TSP planning process, we are hoping to anticipate those demands and make reasonable accommodation for them in the future. At present, the City is considering an expansion of the urban growth boundary (UGB) to allow for additional housing development and encompass land outside of hazard zones for some public facilities. If this is to be accomplished, we will need to have these areas included in the current TSP so we can prepare for the demands they will create. We hope the public will stay involved with the future UGB and the TSP planning activities. Public input will add to the ultimate success of both planning efforts and help us all prepare for the future.
August 11, 2008 It’s time for a transit update! We have been working closely with the Sunset Empire Transportation District (SETD) and wanted to share what we’ve found on existing transit service in Seaside and results from recent rider surveys. The SETD provides Route 20 Gray Sea Gull transit service within Gearhart, Seaside, and Cannon Beach, and the Route 101 Pink Salmon connects Seaside to many other destinations throughout Clatsop County, including: Gearhart, Cannon Beach, Astoria, Warrenton, and Westport. The SETD provides county-wide “Dial-a-Ride” service for the elderly, disabled and those living far from fixed routes. The SETD also coordinates with Oregon Coachways, a charter motor coach company, to provide once daily service to Portland. Results from recent SETD’s rider surveys show transit to be of great interest to Seaside residents. When asked to indicate why they ride the bus, almost half of riders said they take transit because they don’t have a car available. Approximately one in four riders said they can’t/don’t know how to drive, and almost one-fifth said they ride because they prefer to take the bus. Another transit rider survey revealed the following rider recommendations to improve SETD service: lowering prices (19 percent), adding more stops/routes (17 percent), expanding service hours into the evenings and early mornings (11 percent), adding more stops in outlying areas (11 percent), providing bus service on Sundays (11 percent), and including more direct/non-stop routes between Astoria, Seaside, and Cannon Beach (10 percent). The SETD has itemized several goals and strategies to improve transit service in its Comprehensive Plan. These goals include: 1. strengthen access to public transportation, 2. provide cost-effective and safe public transportation, and 3. increase ridership by improving the frequency and connectivity of fixed-route service. We’ll continue to work with Cindy and the SETD to incorporate specific transit improvements into the Seaside TSP.
August 1, 2008 More talk about traffic? It’s the phase we’re in. This week we got preliminary results from our “existing conditions” work, which showed some traffic issues at the main east-west connector streets in town - US 101 and 12th Avenue; US 101 and Broadway; and US 101 at 24th Avenue/Lewis & Clark Road. The problems seem to be with the cross traffic moving east-west that are having a difficult time crossing the highway. I know, this sounds obvious to people that live in Seaside full time – but remember that documentation and justification will be critical when we start looking for ways to improve how people move around Seaside! We’ve also started to get in the traffic data from our July counts. You’ll recall from earlier updates that the team – upon request from City Council – collected traffic data in mid-July along US 101. We collected data in April and forecasted it to reflect what we thought things would look like in July, and then we collected data in July to make sure we got it correct. We are pleased to start getting the data back so we can compare, adjust as appropriate, and finalize our “existing conditions” work. We are pulling together our land use scenario. So far we’re focusing on six potential growth areas: 1. South end of town, along Sunset/Ocean Vista 2. South end of town, east of US 101, along Avenue S 3. Along and east of Wahanna Road, in vicinity of Broadway 4. Mid-end of town, along of Wahanna Road, between Shoreline Terrace and Beachview Terrace 5. North end of town, along Lewis & Clark Road 6. Mid- to north end of town, between Prom and Necanicum River Please note that this work will take us until the middle of August, but we’ll share findings as they’re developed and will have details available at the next public workshop as well. Finally, we will be working on getting some guests to post on this updates page in August. Stay tuned!
July 25, 2008 This past week we had a meeting to discuss how to address potential future development in the Seaside TSP. This conversation was important because future development will impact the type, size, and location of transportation improvements needed in the City. Typically when we forecast future traffic levels, we use one of two methods. For larger urban areas we use a travel demand model, which is a fairly sophisticated tool that considers population and employment growth by small geographic areas called traffic analysis zones (TAZs). Trips generated by growth in population and employment are assigned to the transportation network, distributed based on origins and destinations, and assigned a mode (i.e., cars, bicycles, transit, walking). However, travel demand models are not available for many smaller urban areas, including Seaside. For areas without a travel demand model, the typical process is to look at historic traffic growth and apply this same rate to the future, growing all parts of the City at the same rate. Some jurisdictions have been using a third method called Cumulative Analysis which applies a simplified version of the same steps as travel demand models to smaller urban areas. We are using this method in Seaside, using what the City already knows about projected growth in population and employment, available lands by zone, and known environmental constraints that would limit development. The meeting this week was for the project team to discuss future development projections in Seaside, land use availability, development constraints, and how to assess potential development outside the Urban Growth Boundary. The team agreed on an approach that allows the team to analyze future traffic conditions in the month of August. This analysis is needed to complete the first phase of the TSP “Identification of Need” and must be completed before the workshop planned for September.
July 21, 2008 The remainder of the summer traffic counts were collected this past Saturday (July 19th). The weather was warm and sunny, so we expect that the information will give us a great sense of typical summertime travel conditions in Seaside. Reminder that the team will use this information, combined with those counts collected back in April, to help evaluate traffic flow and delay along the highway (US 101) through Seaside. The Project Management Team is finishing up its review of Existing Conditions and Deficiencies. This work prepares an inventory of the current roadway, bicycle, pedestrian, and transit network in Seaside (local and state facilities) and identifies key deficiencies in regards to safety, mobility, and connectivity. We expect to revise the Existing Conditions and Deficiencies work and post it to the website in early August. We continue our work on the future land use scenario. This week the team is meeting to discuss how to address potential growth outside the City limits and Urban Growth Boundary. As we know, this requires a balance between land and environmental constraints outside the Urban Growth Boundary with the desire to accommodate development consistent with Tsunami Emergency Preparedness Plans. Our team hopes to document information at this meeting that will be relevant to the development of the Future Conditions and Deficiencies work. With the conclusion of our Existing and Future Conditions and Deficiencies work, we will be complete with our first project phase – Determining Project Need. The next phase of the project will be kicked off with a public workshop in September called Brainstorming Potential Improvements.
July 11, 2008 Please be aware that summer traffic counts will be collected tomorrow (Saturday July 12th), as well as next Saturday July 19th. We will be capturing information at the following areas:
The intent of this effort is to understand as clearly as possible what traffic is like along the state highway during the summertime. These counts are in response to a request from the Seaside City Council and Planning Commission at our meeting with them in March. This information will improve our understanding of how well (or not well) traffic moves along the highway. These are 16-hour counts so you’ll see cameras up for the majority of the day. A crew from the Oregon Department of Transportation will be mounting cameras at intersections late Friday or early Saturday, and removing them late Saturday or early Sunday. Half of these intersections will be counted tomorrow, and the other half next Saturday (July 19th). Our team will use the information to count the number of cars traveling through the intersection, record their movement (traveling straight vs. turning), make note of how many bicyclists and pedestrians pass through an intersection, and record the number of axles on each vehicle. This latter observation helps us identify the percent of trucks as part of overall traffic.
July 3, 2008 Happy 4th of July! We are sure that Seaside will be busy this weekend, and the weather should hold out for some nice beach activities. This week we finalized our summary of the first transportation summit we had on June 18th. The participation at this summit was fantastic and we’re excited by all the good feedback we received. The summer assignment is up on the project website and we are starting to get some early responses from the community. Please be aware that summer traffic counts will be collected on Saturday, July 12 and Saturday, July 19. We’ll send more specifics on that next week so you know what to expect. Also this week we’ve been coordinating quite a bit with Cindy Howe at the Sunset Empire Transportation District. Cindy has been very helpful in providing information on current transit routes, ridership, and results from rider surveys. This information has helped us tremendously in understanding current transit service and how we might consider future improvements in the TSP. Finally, we’ve been working with the City of Seaside and Clatsop County to develop a “future land use scenario.” This scenario looks at what type of future development might occur in Seaside, how much we might expect, and where it might go. This work gets at some of the questions we heard at the summit, such as whether the school(s) might relocate, and how much development might take place east and/or south of Wahanna Road. This is an interesting and interactive process, but will challenge us as we move through the summer.
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