 Bethany Boulevard planning starts
The long-anticipated widening of Bethany Boulevard from Highway 26 to West Union is now in the active planning stage. Washington County’s Department of Land Use and Transportation (DLUT) will kick off the design phase of the project with an Open House meeting in late January or early February. (We will send out an email to our online subscribers when this is announced.) Project completion is currently estimated as the end of 2013.
According to Matthew Costigan, Senior Project Manager for DLUT, “the County’s current Transportation Plan calls for Bethany to be a four-to-five-lane road section with bike and pedestrian facilities for the entire length. What this means is that some intersections may not have a center turn lane and some intersecting streets would be right in/right out only (these streets have not been identified as of yet).” Costigan also said that DLUT has just started the process of completing surveys and data collection and that the impact on neighboring properties has not yet been determined.
The data being collected will include vehicular, bike and pedestrian usage. The data will be used to forecast the travel and turn lane needs. Funding for the project ($14.3 million), including right-of-way acquisition, has been allocated as part of the Major Streets Transportation Improvement Program of Washington County. Improving the north-south road connections has been a major emphasis of the county for several years.
It is likely that there will be significant impact to some properties on either side of the road, including the Oak Hills subdivision, to acquire sufficient land to widen the road, and some neighbors are very concerned.
For questions or comments about the Bethany Blvd. project, contact Matthew Costigan, Senior Project Manager, Capital Project Management Division, Washington County DLUT, 503-846-7825 direct, or matthew_costigan@co.washington.or.us.
Thanks to Micki Sparr, editor of the Oak Hills Oracle (oakhillsoracle.com), for information for this article.
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