The SEN Transportation Committee meets via Zoom on the first and third Wednesdays at 1:00 via zoom and as needed on the fourth Thursday evening at 7:00 pm each month. Please see the SEN calendar for details.
Lucy Bambrey has started to help the committee to create and maintain a work calendar so that important topics and items receive necessary committee time and attention throughout the year. We will work to adopt a work plan by the first week of April.
Jess Roshak heard back from Jenifer Willer from Eugene Public Works regarding the Spring Boulevard bridge inquiry sent in 2022. We are following up with Jenifer with related questions and concerns. Ms. Willer supplied the following response about the Spring Boulevard bridge inquiry:
“Public Works Engineering received an assessment from a bridge engineering firm on the seismic vulnerability of the Spring Blvd overpass over 30th Avenue on 1/31/2023. The conclusion is that the bridge does not meet current seismic standards and it would cost less money to replace the bridge than to retrofit it. I want to note that all City bridges need to be retrofit or replaced to meet current seismic standards, which is common across the state for both state and local agency bridges.
Currently, the City has prioritized bridge retrofits carrying designated emergency routes shown on the map at
https://www.eugene-or.gov/2549/Emergency-IceSnow-Routes The City has preliminary designs for 10 bridges prepared and has proceeded to final design for 3 of the 10 bridges. The City has obtained federal grants for constructing the three bridge retrofits that are in final design and has a grant application submitted for a fourth bridge retrofit.
Regarding bridges over 30th Avenue and neighborhood concerns about the route being blocked with debris from the pedestrian bridge or the Spring Blvd bridge, the City has a process in place to clear blockages to get these routes open in the case of a major emergency. In addition to public works resources, we have contracted with a disaster management company that specializes in coming into areas and cleaning up massive amounts of debris and clearing emergency route blockages. Eugene is one of the few west coast cities to have such contracts in place which will allow for much a much quicker response for our area.”
Committee members met with City Transportation Planner Logan Telles and planning students from the UO to discuss their outreach on potential non-permanent roundabouts at the intersection of 35th and Kincaid. Committee members urged door-to-door outreach at homes in direct contact with the intersections in addition to their planned postcard mailing. We helped distribute a survey made by the students by disseminating on Facebook, paper news, and e-news. Members also advocated for further communication between city planners and neighborhood groups in the identification of future project locations.
Committee members met with city staff at the site of the proposed new sidewalk installations on Hilyard at Tugman to discuss concerns related to turning radius and the proposed bump outs. Staff will go ahead with original plans and are certain that the bump out will not pose any traffic hazzard for motorists making northbound turns onto Hilyard.
LTD continues its system-wide ridership assessment this year and we on the Transportation Committee urge members of the community to take the buses in our neighborhood when possible. We will advocate for the return of recently eliminated scheduled routes as staffing becomes normalized at LTD.
Heather Murphy is our new LTD Board representative for the South Eugene subdistrict. She also represents Cottage Grove, Lowell, and Creswell areas. We invite all SEN members to attend a Zoom meet and greet with Heather on Monday, March 20th at 7:00 pm via this Zoom link. If you have a question you’d like to submit for Ms. Murphy to answer, please email it to sentrans97405@gmail.com ahead of the meeting.
We’ll be looking to plan out the Spring sidewalk cleanup soon as soon as we designate a committee point person — stay tuned for details! If you need help maintaining your sidewalk free of vegetation that impedes safe passage for everyone, please reach out. We’ll contact you send volunteers out to remove the overgrown vegetation.
