Progress on Reed Market

Even if it’s only one-third of a mile so far, the change to Southeast Reed Market Road is remarkable.

Where once stood a two-lane road, curbless and without bike lanes or sidewalks, there is now a rebuilt concrete stretch with medians, turn lanes, and all the trappings of a modern roadway.

But Reed Market Road is a long way from completely reborn, and the project is not without detractors.

A $30 million bond approved in 2011 by Bend voters includes the upgrade of Reed Market Road. When finished, the city will have rebuilt three miles of road between Third and 27th streets, including a new roundabout at the intersection of Reed Market Road and 15th Street.

David Abbas, a city of Bend principal engineer overseeing the project, said the first section of the project, from Newberry Drive to Shadowood Drive, took a bit longer than expected, reopening at the beginning of September. But he believes the section currently closed and under construction, from Shadowood to Orion Drive, will be completed by the Nov. 15 deadline.

Once that section is complete, the project will be on hold until the end of February, when crews are expected to start on the stretch between Orion and Camelot Place.

Abbas noted that Reed Market Road from Camelot Place to 27th Street will not be rebuilt, in part because it already has medians and sidewalks, but it will receive some improvements.

“It will get an overlay of asphalt, and we’ll get in and do that as a one- or two-day thing with flaggers,” he said.

According to previous reports in The Bulletin, in July 2007 officials announced a 20-year plan for revamping Reed Market Road, starting in spring 2008. That project, obviously, never got underway, but like the current upgrade would have included the three-lane option that allowed one travel lane each direction and a center turn lane at certain cross streets.

It also included a wide variety of roundabouts, and a planned overpass over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks sometime before 2026. In the past, when the train passed across Reed Market Road, traffic sometimes backed up several blocks in both directions.

But those plans had to change, Abbas said.

“It all comes down to funding,” he said, noting the previous plans changed along with budget alterations and new traffic estimates. In 2011, voters passed the GO Bond, which is paying for $30 million worth of improvements around Bend, including the Reed Market project.

The train overpass was scrapped, at least for now, due to expense. Some roundabouts are also no longer part of the plan.

Randy Potter, for one, would like to see a roundabout added back into the project. Potter lives with his wife, Lynn Potter, at the corner of Orion Drive and Reed Market Road, and their backyard is across from Pettigrew Road.

T stop

Just two weeks ago, a car broke through a fence and careened into their backyard, a fairly common occurrence. It’s not uncommon, they say, for cars to miss the stop sign at the T intersection, head across Reed Market and into their backyard or against their fence. Sometimes, the drivers stop. Other times they don’t. Years ago, a driver ran into their natural gas box. Today, two poles stand in front of the box to prevent a repeat.

The Potters bought their home in 1985. In 1986, Randy Potter said, city planners told neighbors they’d soon build a three-lane road with a center turn lane, sidewalks and curbs. That upgrade is underway now, 27 years later.

Potter is pleased the project will add center turn lanes, he said. But he prefers no median on Reed Market, because turning left out of side roads will still require long waits instead of being able to cross into a center lane and wait to pull into the travel lane.

But more than anything, he worries about the safety of the intersection, which he said in previous versions of the project featured a roundabout to slow traffic and prevent high-speed collisions. In July 2011, a 16-year-old boy was struck and killed near the intersection; Potter said dozens of crashes occur there, although most go unreported. According to Bend Police Lt. Chris Carney, nine crashes were reported to dispatch during 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Over the years, Potter estimated about 30 cars have plowed into his yard. He’s asked the city for rumble strips on Pettigrew, or concrete blocks to be placed at the T intersection. What he’s gotten is a large yellow sign telling motorists they’re not at a four-way stop. With sidewalks and bike lanes, Potter worries more people will be in danger. And with a new 144-unit development proposed for a property just north of Reed Market along Pettigrew Road, Potter believes the number of people traveling through the intersection will increase dramatically.

“We’re going to have hundreds of kids walking, riding their bikes … and texting and not paying attention,” he said. “If we can’t build a safe intersection here, they’ll be in jeopardy.”

Project underway

Abbas said he understands Potter’s and the neighbors’ concerns, and he’s glad to listen to them. But, he said, the project is underway and will go on as planned. To deal with the ongoing challenges of that intersection, Abbas said, the city will add signs and reflectors to help catch drivers’ attention.

“Prior to my time here, they went through and looked at the whole corridor and identified some improvements to be made,” Abbas said. “A number of things were identified as potential improvements, like roundabouts, but it got refined with traffic numbers and designs and budgets and funding. It went to the council, the GO bond went to a vote, and the projects we have are what we’re going forward with.”

Others have grown a bit weary of the extensive detours to allow stretches of road to shut down for several months at a time. Handmade “dead end” signs on the corner of Arborwood Avenue and Teakwood Drive alert drivers looking for a shortcut around the roadwork.

“What’s happened is people have driven up Arborwood looking for an outlet and they didn’t find one, so they were making turnarounds, over and over and over again,” said Carl Elliott, who lives at the corner of Teakwood Drive and Reed Market Road near the construction. “People who lived at the end of the block got tired of it, so they put up signs. … People were interfering with the life we had to live, and they were also jeopardizing the children playing up there. They weren’t always the safest drivers up there when they’d find out they didn’t have an outlet.”

Abbas said he knows the detours in the area have been challenging, given the neighborhoods in the area don’t necessarily follow a grid pattern. But he said so far, he’s heard positive reviews of the new road.

“I’m pleased, we’re getting good feedback,” he said. Next up, crews will stripe the lanes and add some landscaping to the medians and the space between the sidewalks and roadway.

Abbas said the city is going to finish planning and go out for bids this winter for the second half of the project, from 15th Street west toward Third Street. Work on the new roundabout at Southeast 15th Street and Reed Market is slated to begin in June.