McLoughlin Blvd Enhancement Plan Phase 3- Willamette Falls Shared Use Path

The City of Oregon City and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) are partnering to evaluate options for a shared-use pedestrian and bicycle path and streetscape enhancements on both sides of McLoughlin Boulevard between 10th Street and tumwata village. This project is the last and most complex phase of Oregon City’s McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement Plan, which has been in progress for the past 20 years.

Opportunities for Community Participation and Feedback

The City will host two online open houses to share additional information about the project. Details will be shared closer to the event. City Commission briefings will occur throughout the process and can be attended by the public or streamed online.

Project Benefits and Needs

Reconnect Downtown Oregon City with the Willamette River

The project aims to provide safe access to people who walk, access transit, bike and roll on McLoughlin Boulevard. Currently it lacks dedicated on-street bike lanes, proper and sufficient sidewalks and railings and a barrier to fast-moving traffic.
Improved infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users will close a substandard and unsightly transportation gap.
Support Oregon City's tourism, economic, and community development goals by improving walking and biking facilities to better integrate and re-orientate downtown’s relationship with the Willamette River.

Background

The project is located on OR 99E, also known as McLoughlin Boulevard, an Oregon Department of Transportation facility. The corridor is designated as a Regional Bikeway and Pedestrian Parkway, with frequent transit service running parallel to the corridor. However, the final phase of the McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement Plan has proven to be the most challenging, as it is intertwined with the OR 99E viaducts and crosses the Highway 43 bridge alignment. Transit users and pedestrians often feel unsafe due to inadequate lighting, narrow sidewalks, and deteriorating railings that fail to provide a barrier from adjacent fast-moving traffic.

The project has two main goals that address barriers to investing and revitalizing properties that front McLoughlin Boulevard in Oregon City:

Close the gap and provide safe pedestrian and bicycle access.
Provide a conceptual complete street design for McLoughlin Boulevard (both sides) from 10th Street to the 99E tunnel/Railroad Avenue.

The McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement Plan was adopted in 2005. Phases 1 and 2 of the plan have been completed, but the viaducts located between 8th and 10th streets. Unfortunately, the viaducts are not expected to be replaced with a widened structure that would support the widened sidewalk, which is necessary to provide the needed width for safe bicycle and pedestrian access. Attaching a new path to the existing viaduct is not feasible due to its age and structural design.

To address this critical gap in our active transportation network, the City needs to update the options within this section of the corridor. These options could include a separate structure that runs parallel to the viaduct at the same or different grade.

This project will enable the City to complete the Alternatives Identification and Evaluation phase to determine how to address this gap. Once a preferred alternative is identified, the City will proceed with a more detailed design and apply for grants to build all or portions of the section.