Our doorstep gets wider

By Virginia Bruce

The main entrance to the Cedar Mill community is going to be a little easier to get through once the construction that’s currently underway at Cedar Hills Boulevard and Barnes Road is completed. The work is being done by Polygon Homes as a result of the Timberland development on the Teufel Nursery property. The majority of the work is expected to be done by mid-November, weather permitting.
There will be two new handicap ramps at the southeast and northwest corners. Sidewalks will be added in all corners, which will be extended with further road improvements. Bike lanes will continue in all directions. On the diagram, the new pavement is colored gray.

Grading for the improved intersection has already begun. Work is expected to be finished mid-November

New signal lights won’t be installed until January, because there’s a long lead-time for the manufacture of the poles, which will be located on the new pedestrian island-refuges. The lights will be controlled by a system of “detector loops” under the pavement – near the intersection and also 140 and 160 feet back from the intersection so that the system can detect not just that a car has rolled over it, but that there might be a “stack” of vehicles waiting for the light. This should result in better traffic flow through the intersection.

The Teufel property was annexed into Beaverton at the time it was acquired by Polygon, so it’s the Beaverton planners that “conditioned” the roadwork as part of their acceptance of the development application. The intersection improvements weren’t required to be done until the 500th unit was completed. However, Fred Gast, Polygon V.P., says, "we wanted to get the improvement completed as early as possible so that our customers and others have an improved transportation system, rather than one that is “Under Construction” or worse “Failing”. We should be easy to find and easy to get to."

Beaverton Senior Engineer Peter Arellano said that several people had called the Beaverton Community Development Department concerned that somehow Wal-Mart was sneaking in and building it’s store! And some people speculated that the work was being done now because it was finally decided that Wal-Mart wouldn’t be paying for it. However, the timing is simply coincidental. The application for the work was accepted in March and approved in June, says Arrelano.

Permitting for the roadwork was mainly handled by Washington County. Although Beaverton has annexed the land around this intersection, the roads are still owned by the County. However, Beaverton has responsibility for the storm drains and sewers in the area, so they were involved in approving that part of the application.

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Published monthly by Cedar Mill Advertising & Design
Publisher/Editor:Virginia Bruce
503-629-5799
12110 NW West Rd
Portland, OR 97229