City of Bend hosts Olney Ave. pedestrian & bike open house which will enhance above & below ground infrastructure
BEND, Ore. {KTVZ} - The City of Bend hosted its pedestrian and bicycle open house Monday evening at the Element Bend Hotel.
This particular project is really meant to help the bicyclists and pedestrians move about the city more freely, efficiently and most importantly, more safely.
Changes are coming to Olney Avenue in northeast Bend to make it a safer road to walk, bike, roll, drive and more.
Engineering Associate, Carrie Harris says this project, focused along Olney Avenue in northeast Bend, is long over-due.
“This project for us, is a pedestrian and bicycle improvements project. It's on a key walking and biking route for the city of Bend, and what we mean by that is, those are kind of our backbone of our walking and biking system. We want those streets that are key routes to be the safest in the city. We want people to be comfortable riding with their kid on those routes, and especially that crossing at intersections like spots where people walking and biking mix with vehicles. We want them to have dedicated space.”
Harris says not only will improvements be made above ground on our streets, but below ground as well.
“The city's job is to get you clean water to your house and make sure your toilets are flushing and that sewer sewage is not like backing up into your house, and so, this project does have like, upsized pipes and infrastructure below the ground. That's partly why some of the construction is going to be happening, and closing down the roads is to replace that underground pipe and kind of infrastructure that is outdated at this point.”
But Bend resident, Douglas Zirker feels, creating these exclusive bike and pedestrian lanes just makes it harder for residents to get around in their vehicles.
“I'm just concerned about the value for cost. I drive across the Portland Bridge every day and I don't see the problems that they're trying to address here. There aren't that many pedestrians and bicyclists. There are a few, and I'm sure they want to be protected and be safe, but I don't know that they're really enhancing car traffic.”
Harris says, the city of Bend understands the concerns but this project is also enhancing other infrastructure.
“It's not every road that's a key walking and biking route for the city. It's only, I think, there's maybe 12 of them. But those are the routes where we're going to really be prioritizing safety for people walking and biking, but there's other roads where we definitely prioritize vehicles and try to really limit vehicle delays. Do what we can to keep up with that congestion.”
The City of Bend says that this only pedestrian and bicycle improvement project will kick off in February 2025, and go through the end of the year, 2025.
