Within the next few weeks, visitors to historic downtown Oregon City will experience the downtown marketplace in a very different way. Just around the corner for this downtown, is a return to two-way traffic flow along the full length of Main Street. This change in circulation will be preceded by a change in on-street parking orientation along two block faces downtown.

Thirty one diagonal on-street parking spots on the east side of Main Street along the 700 and 800 blocks will be converted to parallel parking spots to accommodate two-way traffic.

New parallel parking spots will be added along the courthouse side of Main Street in this area. The majority of the parallel spots will be 23 feet in length, though a couple will be sized for compact vehicles. According to project engineers from Wallis Engineering, the addition of new parallel parking spots along Main Street will result in a temporary overall loss of between 3 to 5 parking spots. Several more parking spaces will be created during the second phase of this project next year.

The contractor on this project, Canby Excavating Inc, is waiting until the weather is right to implement the road striping component of this downtown improvement project. The optimal conditions would be a temperature above 45 degrees with no moisture on the road surface.

“Improved vehicle circulation makes it easier for visitors to navigate downtown. This is a plus for downtown development and new business starts,” said Lloyd Purdy, Director of the non-profit Main Street Oregon City, “The next step -- making our downtown more pedestrian friendly with better lighting, crosswalks and pedestrian-focused intersections also supports a more vibrant and active downtown marketplace.”

The first phase of the project, wrapping up this fall, returns Oregon City's Main Street to a two-way -- retail friendly downtown. Improvements to downtown Oregon City's traffic circulation and pedestrian-scale infrastructure reinforces the theme that people take priority in downtown Oregon City. Unique small businesses flourish when the downtown marketplace is pedestrian friendly and drivers can easily navigate through the downtown marketplace.

Last year the City of Oregon City working with ODOT and the non-profit downtown revitalization program, Main Street Oregon City, competed for and was awarded nearly $2.4 million in Federal and State funding for streetscape improvement infrastructure projects focused on making downtown Oregon City more pedestrian and visitor friendly. This summer, contractors began work on the first phase of a multi-phase, multi-year project that could ultimately culminate in more than $4 million in streetscape enhancements downtown from 5th to 15th Streets.