July 10 Update: Crews will fog seal the SE Spokane Street to SE Clatsop Street stretch on Monday, July 14 instead of Saturday, July 12.  On Saturday, crews will fog seal N Flint Avenue between Russell Street and NE Broadway.

(July 9, 2014)  – The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation advises the traveling public that street improvements will require rolling closures on SE 19^th Avenue from SE Reedway to SE Clatsop streets for fog sealing from July 10 to 12, 7 a.m. to about 6 p.m. each day.

All traffic, including vehicles and bicycles, will be detoured onto SE 17^th Avenue.  Pedestrians may use the sidewalks but crossings for pedestrians, bicycles and motor vehicles will be limited to SE Reedway, SE Bybee, SE Spokane and SE Tacoma streets while work is in progress and while the fog sealant dries.

The rolling closures are as follows: SE Reedway to SE Bybee will be closed on July 10; SE Bybee to SE Spokane will be closed July 11 and SE Spokane to SE Clatsop will be closed on July 12.

The rolling closures allow crews to apply fog seal, a mixture of liquefied asphalt and recycled rubber tires that leaves a tough film on the street, protecting the pavement from weather and wear and preventing more costly and lengthy repairs in the future. 

The public is asked to stay off the street until the fog sealant is dried and barricades removed. To ensure an effective seal and prevent the sticky fog seal from getting on clothes, pets and vehicles, please keep all vehicles, people and pets off the pavement until the street reopens.

The public is advised to expect delays while repairs are being made. We ask the public to travel cautiously, observe all closures and directions by flaggers, and use alternate routes.

Fog sealing depends on warm and dry weather and the schedule may change.

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(July 3, 2014)  – The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation advises the traveling public that street improvements will require lane closures on SE 130th Avenue between SE Stark and SE Lincoln streets from Monday, July 7 through Friday, August 22, 2014.

The lane closures will allow crews to rebuild and repave 3.15 lane miles of street and upgrade four corners to provide curb ramps and ADA access.

Work will require intermittent lane closures during the weekdays between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. 

Occasionally, when the work allows for only one lane of travel, the southbound direction on SE 130^th Avenue will be closed between SE Market and SE Stark streets. The northbound direction will remain open at all times.

Detour signs will route southbound Stark Street traffic to either SE 122^nd or SE 135^th avenues.  On-street parking on SE 130^th Avenue will be restricted during the work day to facilitate construction.

The public is advised to expect delays, travel cautiously, observe traffic signing and directions by flaggers, and use alternate routes if possible to avoid congestion.

Local access to residences and businesses will be provided.

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7/25 Update: Crews will finish paving on N. Willamette this weekend, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.  Flaggers will direct traffic. Expect delays or use alternate routes. Paving had been scheduled earlier but postponed due to rain.

 7/8 Update:  Traffic heading northwest (away from downtown) will be detoured onto  N Lombard Street between Woolsey and Portsmouth avenues. People on bicycle will be detoured onto Amherst Street.

Traffic Advisory: Street improvements to close lanes on N Willamette Blvd from N Portsmouth to N Woolsey avenues July 7 to 18

(July 2, 2014)  – The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation advises the traveling public that street improvements will require lane closures of N Willamette Boulevard from N Portsmouth Avenue to N Woolsey Avenue for two weeks from Monday, July 7 through Friday, July 18,  7 a.m. through 5 p.m. each weekday.

These lane closures will allow crews to grind and pave 2.36 lane miles.

Parking restriction barricades will be in place one or two workdays before the start of work.

Access will be maintained for businesses and residents. The public is advised to expect delays while repairs are being made. We ask the public to travel cautiously, observe all lane closures and directions by flaggers, and use alternate routes if possible.

This work is weather-dependent and the schedule may change.

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(July 1, 2014) – The Portland Bureau of Transportation advises the traveling public that Portland Streetcar pre-construction work will occur on SW Fourth Avenue at Montgomery on Wednesday, July 2 from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. and Thursday, July 3 from 9 a.m. through 3 p.m.   

The center lane will be closed to all traffic from just south of SW Harrison Street through SW Montgomery Street for sewer inspection work.  Portland Streetcar service will not be impacted by this work.

This work is required in advance of the upcoming Streetcar track construction on SW 4^th Avenue and on SW Montgomery Street to add a second track to allow for the completed loop operations beginning September 12, 2015 with the opening of the new Tilikum Crossing Transit Bridge. 

The traveling public is asked to follow signs and use caution in work zones.

For more information, visit www.portlandstreetcar.org/node/12.

100 mile commitment renewed for 2014-15

Photo by Felicity J. Mackay/Portland Bureau of Transportation.

(June 30, 2014) – Mayor Charlie Hales, Commissioner Steve Novick and Leah Treat, the city’s transportation director, announced today that Portland Bureau of Transportation crews exceeded their goal of maintaining 100 lane miles of Portland streets during the fiscal year that ends today.

The 103-mile total for fiscal year 2013-14 is more than double the mileage preserved in the previous fiscal year.

This year’s work also marks the return of street maintenance to low-traffic neighborhood streets, a practice that City Council had discontinued in 2009 amid budget concerns and reauthorized for fiscal year 2013-14.  Neighborhood work focused on streets around schools.

The three officials also renewed their commitment to preserve at least 100 lane miles of city streets for the fiscal year that starts tomorrow.   They made their announcement at the last paving project of the year on NE Holladay Street between Ninth and 13^th avenues in the heart of the Lloyd District.

“We promised we’d get back to basics and we have,” Hales said. “Thanks to the hard work of our maintenance crews, and using new techniques like fog seal, we have achieved our goal. Portlanders know we need to do more, and when we approve more funding for transportation later this year, we will be able to build on these achievements and get our streets back in the shape that all Portlanders deserve.”

“Preventive maintenance saves money in the long run,” Commissioner Steve Novick said. “The more we can do to keep our roads in good condition, the more we can avoid more expensive rebuilds later on. We will continue to focus our limited resources on the meat and potatoes of our transportation network by prioritizing maintenance on our streets and other critical assets.”

One of the challenges is rising material costs. Asphalt, for example, cost about $15 per ton 20 years ago and has quadrupled to around $60 per ton.

Novick also addressed a question he has heard from members of the public.  “We know that sometimes people see us doing preventive maintenance on a street and they ask ‘Why are crews working on that street when there’s another nearby that’s a lot worse?’” he said. “The truth is that we get the biggest bang for our buck doing preventive maintenance on streets that don't look bad yet but are beginning to show signs of wear. We get an additional 10 years of life on those streets for a fraction of the cost of a rebuild.”

PBOT treated the 103 lane miles with a variety of techniques.  Crews paved 47 lane miles of arterial or higher-traffic streets.  They treated 53 lane miles of streets with fog seal, a technique new to Portland that was applied mostly on neighborhood streets where traffic is lighter and where the sealant is the most cost-effective preservation technique. In addition, crews dug up, repaired and repaved 3 lane miles of badly damaged street sections.  A lane mile is one mile of street that is 12-feet wide.

“I’d like to thank our maintenance crews who have done an outstanding job, exceeding our 100-miles goal,” Treat said. “We have learned from our first season using the new fog seal technique and are focused on process improvements to become even more efficient in applying this technique next year.  I applaud and encourage our employees in their efforts to find new and innovative ways to maximize resources and deliver much needed improvements to our transportation infrastructure.”

Photo by Felicity J. Mackay/Portland Bureau of Transportation.

“I also want to thank the public for their patience,” Treat added. “We know that paving and fog sealing can be a short term inconvenience but the results serve our community for many years.”

A look ahead: 100-plus mile goal for 2014-15

The 2014-15 street maintenance goal includes 50 miles of paving on arterial streets, and 50 miles of fog sealing on neighborhood streets.

The first two paving projects for 2014-15 will begin after the July 4^th holiday weekend:

• First, 2.3 lane miles of Willamette Boulevard will be paved from North Portsmouth Avenue to North Woolsey Street.
• Next, 2.5 lane miles of North Rosa Parks Way will be paved from North Delaware to Maryland avenues.

Fog sealing will begin once temperatures rise above 80 degrees and continue through September, as weather allows. Fog sealing is a new technique for Portland, with the last year marking its debut.

The mixture of emulsified asphalt and recycled rubber tires is highly cost effective, requiring about $10,000 per lane mile as compared to paving which is roughly $150,000 per mile.  In its first year, PBOT crews learned that the technique works for Portland streets even in our rainy climate, but requires warm and dry weather to apply.

PBOT crews will focus fog sealing on streets that are within one-quarter mile of schools and along neighborhood greenways, the low-traffic streets that are part of Portland’s bicycling network.

Maps are available of the 2013-14 completed projects.  View and use photos of PBOT crews: https://www.flickr.com/photos/115983598@N06/sets/72157640337869093/

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