Traveling Southwest Capitol Highway near Multnomah Village by foot or bike will be a safer endeavor in the near future. Currently, the narrow, two-lane road lacks shoulders, sidewalks or bike lanes common in other parts of the city.

“It’s the top city transportation priority for Southwest Portland,” said Dylan Rivera, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT). “People have been talking about Capitol Highway for 20 years. Every time we went to Southwest Portland, people talk about Southwest Capitol Highway.”

The public on Wednesday got its first look at preliminary designs for the improvements. The joint PBOT-Bureau of Environmental Services project will address safety concerns on a stretch of Southwest Capitol Highway from Garden Home Road to Taylors Ferry Road.

The improvements, estimated to cost from $10 million to $20 million, include the addition of separated bike lanes and sidewalks on the east side of the roadway. The west side will gain a lane for both bicyclists and pedestrians.

“The west side was trickier with its topography for creating a combined use lane,” said Steve Szigethy, capital project manager for PBOT. “We will be using different surface types. People will see a few different ways to separate bikes and pedestrians.”

A steep elevation change along the route will present a challenge for the project team. There are steep downhill grades on the northbound side, combined with sharp curves.

“One thing our engineers are doing is giving (the north side) a higher design speed,” Szigethy said. “We want to make sure that when there is a curve, people can navigate that safely. We want to make sure there are good sightlines. That is a design challenge. It is certainly a different environment than found on the east side.”

Another challenge is dealing with stormwater runoff. Unlike many parts of Portland, the area has separate stormwater and sewage systems. Instead of running into the same treatment facilities as sewage, stormwater from Southwest Capitol Highway runs into Fanno Creek and Tryon Creek.

That means designers must find ways to filter pollutants from runoff before it reaches the streams.

“We are working to make sure the stormwater goes where it should, off of streets,” said Diane Dulken, public information officer for the Bureau of Environmental Services. “We want it to go to green street planters that can absorb and filter water and send it into a new pipe built under Capitol Highway.”

The pervasive use of concrete in the area combined with a large number of trees that drop drain-clogging leaves means water often ends up in places it shouldn’t.

“We are building new areas for the water to go so it doesn’t end up flooding,” Dulken said. “That is a perennial problem. We build those green, landscaped areas that serve to slow down the water and filter it to reduce the pollution.”

With the design challenges largely overcome, the project team will now seek public input; final design changes will be made next year. PBOT hopes to put the project out to bid by October or November 2018. Construction is expected to start in 2019 and last about 12 months.

“All told, this will be a major project,” Szigethy said.

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