91ÊÓƵ

At the Portland City Council meeting Wednesday, commissioners voted to accept about $17 million in federal grants distributed by Metro through the Regional Flexible Funding Allocation program for four new capital projects.

With a local match of about $11.8 million from the Portland Bureau of Transportation, the four projects will bring improvements to Northeast 122nd Avenue, North Willamette Boulevard, Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and on the Southeast Stark/Washington streets corridor in East Portland.

The four PBOT projects were drawn from projects already identified in its long-range plan and reflect community priorities for active transportation, meaning projects that improve safety for people walking, biking, and accessing public transit. With the money approved, each project will begin being developed by a team of planners, project managers and engineers before starting construction in late 2025 at the earliest, according to a news release.

A high crash corridor, Northeast 122nd Avenue currently has long distances between safe pedestrian crossings. The funded improvements will include new signalized street crossings at or near Northeast Beech Street, Northeast Sacramento and Brazee streets, near Northeast Broadway and Hancock, and between Northeast Wasco and Multnomah.

PBOT currently is completing a comprehensive corridor plan for 122nd Avenue, and the locations were selected based on public feedback as well as staff analysis. The total project budget is $6.4 million.

On North Willamette Boulevard, PBOT will construct an active transportation corridor with 3 miles of protected bike lanes, new pedestrian crossings and improved ADA access, as well as better, more accessible bus stops to make access to transit safer and easier. The total project budget is $6 million.

Developed in close partnership with the Soul District Business Association are five new pedestrian crossing improvements on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Northeast Holman, Emerson, Mason, Failing and Cook streets. The project also includes funding for traffic signal modifications and safety improvements at Northeast Killingsworth and Fremont streets. The total project budget is $4.7 million.

The Southeast Stark and Southeast Washington corridor, between Southeast 92nd and 109th avenues, will see safety improvements for all modes. Among the planned improvements are new transit islands and bus lanes, protected bike lanes, improved pedestrian crossings at existing signals, a new pedestrian crossing at Southeast 105th Avenue, new ADA curb ramps and street lighting, as well as pavement repair. The total project budget is $11.4 million.