Leaders guiding a Portland-to-Gresham bus rapid transit project will take a closer look at a new route option when they meet next Wednesday in Southeast Portland.
After findings showed unpromising travel times for the inner-Powell Boulevard, outer-Division Street route they had preferred for the 15-mile line, the Powell-Division Transit and Development Project steering committee agreed that planners should take a closer look at an all-Division Street route between downtown Gresham to inner Southeast Portland. Next week the committee will get an update on their early findings.
Steering committee meeting
When: Wednesday, June 1, 4-6 p.m.
Where: Colonial Heights Building
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
2931 SE Harrison St., Portland
Public comment will be heard at the beginning of the meeting.
Materials:
A meeting packet released Tuesday suggests they'll hear good news.
The packet reports that initial analysis shows bus rapid transit on inner Division Street would be 15 to 20 percent faster than the current 4-Division bus. How? By making fewer stops – about every seven blocks instead of every two or three – and speeding up the boarding process. Buses would also get longer green lights at key intersections.
Those are all essential features of bus rapid transit, a broad term that can also incorporate a variety of other potential transit improvements, from larger buses and faster fare collection to more robust stations and bicycle and pedestrian improvements. Some bus rapid transit lines use transit-only lanes for all or part of their route, but others operate in mixed travel lanes.
The packet suggests bus rapid transit would improve travel times even operating in mixed traffic with little change to the streetscape on inner Division Street west of 60th Avenue, where the street narrows through a neighborhood busy with new apartment construction, restaurants and shops.
The packet also says that project costs look "promising" versus the inner-Powell route, which would have required more expensive roadway treatments and considerable impacts to buildings and properties, particularly where the line would cross north to Division Street, likely on 82nd Avenue.
Which bridge?
If the committee decides to proceed with the Division route, one of the big questions ahead will be which bridge to use to cross the Willamette River.
If bus rapid transit were to proceed on Division Street, the line could use either the Tilikum Crossing or the Hawthorne Bridge. Getting to the Tilikum Crossing would mean needing to cross over two sets of railroad tracks.
The committee recommended the Tilikum Crossing a year ago. But accessing that bridge from inner Division requires crossing both Union Pacific/Amtrak tracks and the MAX Orange Line. As anyone who drives in that area knows, at-grade train crossings could cause major delays, with scores of trains per day ranging from as short as 33 seconds for a MAX train to as long as 45 minutes for some freight trains.
To avoid those delays, the report suggests one of two options would likely be needed: A costly bridge over the tracks, or following 7th Avenue to the Hawthorne Bridge as the 4-Division does today.
The packet calls the Hawthorne Bridge option "more promising", noting that there's higher ridership demand from Division straight into downtown than to South Waterfront and Portland State University. (Riders headed there could transfer to the MAX Orange Line at Southeast 12th Avenue.) Although the Hawthorne Bridge is a drawbridge, lifts only occur outside of rush hour and tend to be just a few minutes long.
Next week, staff will present the differences between the bridge crossing options and the committee will have an opportunity to discuss.
Study will continue over the summer
Planners caution that they need to do a lot more public outreach and technical analysis before they can recommend an all-Division route from downtown Gresham to inner southeast Portland, or a Hawthorne Bridge crossing. That work will continue over the next few months.
Also on Wednesday, the committee will discuss remaining route decisions between downtown Gresham and Mt. Hood Community College on Southeast Stark Street. In public outreach and previous steering committee discussions, Hogan Drive has been the preferred option over routes that would use Cleveland Avenue or Eastman/223rd Avenue.
The project's partners maintain a goal of having the committee select a final route late this summer and choosing station locations this fall. That could keep the project on a timeline to open in 2021.
The project is a partnership between Metro, TriMet, the cities of Portland and Gresham, Multnomah County and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The steering committee's 22 members include top officials from each of those agencies as well as community representatives.
Subscribe to email updates about the project
This story has been updated to correct the project's potential opening date.