As the city of Bend looks at improving traffic on Reed Market Road and Murphy Road, it could revert back to a solution the city used to get roundabouts and a bridge built on the west side of Bend.

The full cost of upgrading Reed Market Road is looming at $60 million and millions of dollars more to fix Murphy Road. As a result, city staff said one of the best alternatives could be to partner with developers to fund road improvements on the southeast side of Bend.

The concept is similar to an effort by a group of developers who six years ago proposed a five-year agreement to help fund and build a series of traffic improvements. Known as the Westside Consortium, the group of developers included The Bulletin. They agreed to finance about $7.7 million worth of projects, which included installing eight roundabouts, connecting unfinished roads and building the Bill Healy Memorial Bridge.

For the southeast side of Bend, city staff has recommended that developers front the cost of traffic improvements. The city would reimburse them for a share of the expenses, depending on how much impact the developers projects have on the traffic system.

The developers in the Westside Consortium were spurred into working with the city after a hearings officer denied a development on the west side because the existing infrastructure could not support it.

The advantage was the city got prepaid in a predictable way and developers did not have problems with failing intersections slowing down their ability to develop land, Mayor Bill Friedman said of the agreement.

While no developments on Bends southeast side have been denied because of traffic congestion, Friedman said there is a link to what happened on the west side.

The commonality is the possibility that Reed Market Road has the same situation where the traffic volume at an intersection is so high, the next (development) application might be rejected because it overloads the intersection, Friedman said.

The southeast side of Bend is ripe for growth, with 800 acres of vacant, developable land. The city currently has 275 acres on the southeast end under its land use review process and planners expect another 50 acres will be submitted soon for development.

For the past two years, the city has been studying what to do to improve traffic along Reed Market Road, which ranks at the top of the list for the most congested and dangerous roads in the city.

The city plans to start upgrading the road next summer. The improvements include building a double-lane roundabout at 15th Street and Reed Market Road, widening a section of road between 15th Street and the railroad tracks, and putting in medians with left-hand turn pockets at the intersection of 15th Street and Daly Estates Drive.

In a plan the City Council adopted in June, the first phase of improvements is estimated to cost $20 million. City staff told councilors at a recent meeting that the city has about a third of the money to cover the first phase.

To make up the difference, city staff looked at a number of alternatives, such as using a bond for the project and paying off the bond with system development charges; adding an additional system development charge for new development in the southeast area; seeking additional funding from state or federal governments; or creating a local improvement district.

Taking into consideration the legal risks to the city, the amount of time before construction would start and the expense to the city, the alternative that city staff believe to be the best is a solution similar to the Westside Consortium.

As part of the recommendation, city staff also said the city should expand its traffic policy. Broadening the policy allows the city to analyze the impacts that new developments would have on major roads that are farther than a mile away, which is that distance the existing policy covers. The developers would then have to pay for improvements to the road to offset the added congestion their projects would cause.

Extending the scope will be crucial for improvements to Reed Market Road, which is the only major artery for traffic in the fastest-growing section of town.

Sometimes in an area, the only way in and out is through an intersection as far away as a mile and half, said Deborah Hogan, who is the citys project manager for the Reed Market corridor. No matter what you build, all the trips will go through Reed Market Road and Third Street. If that is the case, the issue is not how far away, but where are the trips going to go.

By collaborating with developers to do improvements, funds could be used for long-term fixes, such as building roundabouts at intersections, rather than interim solutions like putting in another turn lane or a traffic signal, city staff said.

Those improvements can be throw-away improvements, Hogan said. The idea is lets not put something in that we know were not going to live with for very long when we have already identified the longer term solution.

But the developers share of improvements that are warranted by traffic stemming from new development is often far less than what it costs to construct a long-term traffic fix, such as an entire roundabout, City Engineer Michael Magee said.

In most cases, once they touch (the improvement), it is more than what they are mitigated to. They are looking for us to provide some flexibility, Magee said.

City staff and councilors acknowledged that if developers collaborate on the southeast side of Bend, it could be a far different scenario than what occurred on the west side.

For starters, the west side had fewer developers who owned larger chunks of land. The west-side developers also initiated the consortium.

Still, city councilors said they are interested in the idea.

I always think bringing a group of people together is a good way to go, Friedman said. It is no risk. Either we stay the same or get better. That is a great place to be.