Congestion at the gate – will it
improve?
By Virginia Bruce with help from Larry
Barnes
A large proportion of the auto traffic coming into Cedar Mill
arrives via the intersection of Cedar Hills Boulevard and Barnes
Road. As Cedar Mill has grown, this intersection has become increasingly
congested. And before long there will be significant increases in
traffic through this intersection when Polygon Homes completes the Teufel
Development.
If the Wal-Mart store is approved by Beaverton, traffic is expected
to increase by nearly 20% at some times. In addition, when the work
on Highway 26 is completed, cars coming from the south on Highway
217 will no longer be able to use the Highway 26 ramp to exit onto
Cedar Hills Boulevard, but will exit onto Barnes Road near St. Vincent’s
Hospital. They’ll
end up in the same intersection, but will be approaching it from
westbound Barnes, to continue straight through or turn right onto
Cedar Hills.
 Washington County always tries to get developers to pay for roadwork
improvements that are needed as a result of development. In this
case, according to County Engineer Greg Miller, “Polygon Homes will
pay for some of the improvements needed for this intersection, including
all but one of the eastbound to south right turn lanes on Barnes,
and extension of the two through lanes each way on Barnes west of the intersection,
and Polygon will build only a portion of the expansion on Cedar Hills north
of intersection. Polygon will also do only a short section of the westbound
right turn lane on Barnes to east of intersection.”
Miller continues, “The
details and timing will come as we evaluate the Walmart development—we
are currently awaiting resubmission of their application—it was incomplete
the first time. We’re also waiting
for Peterkort to resubmit their master plan (on hold because of annexation
of much of the area by city—they must now address city as well as county
standards). We are working with all parties to make sure that the
improvements done by each developer are in a logical sequence and
minimize the amount of interim work that has to be torn out by the
next phase.”
Some of the problems and concerns with these plans are
highlighted on the accompanying diagram: 1. Another island may be
needed here to separate lanes, preventing people from attempting
to make last-minute right turns. 2. Traffic in the right-turn only lanes,
if it gets backed up, could block the right-in-only driveway into the proposed
Wal-Mart lot further west. 3. Heavy traffic in the southbound lane
may block the westbound US 26 ramp. Additionally, traffic heading
for the US 26 eastbound lane will need to cross two lanes. 4. Wal-Mart’s
plan did not address the pedestrian and cyclist safety hazard under the US
26 overpass. The overpass is owned by the Oregon Dept. of Transportation
(ODOT) and the county and ODOT are working out a solution to this. Miller
says, “We
are also working with all parties to plan how the bike and pedestrian
circulation will work throughout this area. This is a particularly difficult
problem where Cedar Hills goes under 26, but when we’re done, there
will be bike and pedestrian facilities there.”5.
Left turn and through lane traffic is likely to block the westbound
US 26 off-ramp, and 6. This through lane is not aligned through the
intersection and may result in collisions.
Even if Wal-Mart withdraws its
application, or if it is denied by Beaverton, the corner will eventually
hold some type of large retail development. It’s
encouraging that the government agencies are working hard to delineate
additional road capacity, but it’s also clear that whatever happens,
this intersection will only get more frustrating for people trying to get
into and out of Cedar Mill. Maybe we’d better just all stay home!
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