City of Bend holds open house and survey for Bear Creek Rd. & 27th St. improvements project
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The City of Bend is currently designing a variety of safer and more accessible bike and pedestrian routes throughout the city, including along Bear Creek Road and SE 27th Street.
Tuesday evening, the city held an open house at Bend Municipal Court, and invited community members to give their input on draft design concepts.
The Bear Creek Road and 27th Street improvements project is meant to enhance connectivity in Bend by constructing safer and more accessible bike and pedestrian routes throughout the community.
The project will also construct a roundabout at the Bear Creek Road, Pettigrew Road and Purcell Boulevard intersection to improve safety at an intersection that experiences high crash rates.
Water and sewer improvements are also included.
Senior Project Manager Sinclair Burr said: “This project is really important. It provides a lot of increased pedestrian bike connectivity across the city. We're starting at Cessna and going all the way out to the urban growth boundary on Bear Creek Road at the urban growth boundary. There's going to be a new low-income housing, and we think that the shared use paths that we're planning with this project are going to be really important for those folks living out there on the edge of the city.”
Bend resident Elayne Logan Currie added: “We've lived just off of Bear Creek for 35 years, and I use it routinely in my working days to get to work and otherwise, recreational cycling out east to town. And it's a skinny, narrow, dangerous road. We also commute or walk a lot in the area and the sidewalks are just nonexistent in many parts of it. We're really excited to see the improvements coming.”
The project is primarily funded by the Transportation General Obligation (GO) bond, which was approved by voters in 2020 for $12.8 million. This bond also includes $1.4 million that is allocated for water and sewer upgrades.
Construction is anticipated to begin in 2025 with a goal of completion at over 2 years.
