Couplet funding opportunity slides past

June 24, 2004 -- Sisters area residents who dislike a proposal for a one-way couplet on Hood and Main Avenues may not have to worry about seeing a couplet in the near future.

The City of Sisters' difficulties in getting a plan together for the couplet are threatening to kill the city's chance of winning state funds for the estimated $2 million to $3.5 million project.

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) told the city earlier this month that it missed the deadline to present proposals for the couplet in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) for 2008 to 2009.

The City of Sisters hired Cogan Owens Cogan (COC), an engineering consultant, to work with the city and a Couplet Advisory Committee (CAC) in August to create a couplet refinement plan. The plan is supposed to lay out the most feasible design for a couplet which will relieve congestion from Cascade Avenue during peak periods.

Eileen Stein, City Manager, said the plan should have been completed by May so the city could present it to ODOT for acceptance into the STIP.

If the couplet had been included in the STIP, it would have had a good chance of receiving funding for the entire estimated $2 to $3.5 million project, Stein said.

But a series of couplet committee meetings has hit one speed bump after another in trying to navigate through highway standards, possible configurations and the interests of the community.

ODOT officials sent back the city's proposal for a westbound Hood Avenue and eastbound Main Avenue in February, stating the sharp right-hand turn which would be needed to access Main Avenue at the Locust Street/Cascade Avenue intersection would not comply with federal regulations for a state highway.

As a result, the city council voted unanimously in May to increase the contract price for its engineering consultants by 53 percent ($18,462) to conduct additional analysis. The price increase will cover the costs of additional CAC meetings, public workshops and research.

City staff are crossing fingers in hopes the additional money and time spent to design a traffic relief plan which will fit the community and meet ODOT approval will not become a wasted effort.

There is still a chance the couplet could make it into the STIP -- if the couplet plan can be put in the place of another transportation project sometime within the next 12 months.

"I hoped we would have been finished in time to be eligible for the 2008 to 2009 STIP," Stein said. "But it will take one-and-a-half years to go through the process of finalizing the 2008 to 2009 STIP, so there is some remote chance we will be finished with the CAC project at that time."

If the couplet plan is completed soon, the city could try to swap it with a project which proposes to add a third passing lane on Highway 20 near the Sisters KOA Campground, Stein said. That project is among the 2008 to 2009 STIP projects which could receive part of the $3.48 million for modernization projects in the Sisters area.

But such a substitution would have to meet the approval of the Central Oregon Area Commission of Transportation (COACT). Their approval is not easily obtained, Stein said.

"The COACT is a group of elected officials and staff from Crook County, Deschutes County and Jefferson County and we must have their permission to make a substitution," Stein said. "Each of those counties has several city representatives. That's a lot of people and a lot of agencies that you need to make your case to. It's not impossible, but it is an obstacle to overcome."

Still, even if the COACT rejects a substitution, all hope is not lost. The city will then apply for funding in the 2010 to 2011 STIP, Stein said. But, the city is much less likely to win funding for the couplet under that STIP, Stein said.

In the third phase of the Oregon Transportation Investment Act adopted by the state legislature in 2003, the legislation allocated gas taxes to pay for half of the costs for state-wide bridge replacements and some other transportation projects. Gas taxes are traditionally used to fund "modernization" projects, such as the couplet.

"It will pinch the amount of money available for the STIP process," Stein said. "After the 2008 to 2009 STIP, it will be highly competitive."

If the couplet is funded in the 2010 to 2011 STIP, it means the couplet will be constructed in 2011, which is two years later than planned, Stein said. And that means two years of more congestion.

"The traffic will just continue to deteriorate," Stein said. "Now it is worse in summer months. But then it will spill over to non-shoulder seasons. As we experience more growth in the community, we will see congestion in non-peak and non-summer times."