News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
In the wake of a pair of serious accidents at the intersection of Barclay Drive and Highway 20 at the west end of Sisters, planners have started work on installing a traffic signal at that location.
Sisters City Planning Director Brian Rankin has received a cost estimate of $1.2 million from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) for the Barclay Drive signal. Another signal at Locust Street would cost an estimated $925,000.
The estimate is just a first step in a long process that Rankin does not expect to see completed until sometime in 2008-09.
The $1.2 million estimate includes $350,000 in right-of-way acquisition and $615,000 in actual construction costs. The rest of the money would cover design and bid document creation and the like.
Rankin said the city initially considered installing both signals at the same time but quickly decided it would probably be too complex to do so. Rankin notes that he has not yet received specific direction on how to proceed, but he said that "what I'm sensing from the council and the community is that Barclay Drive is more pressing."
Until recently, the Locust Street intersection has been the focus of concern because of its proximity to Sisters Elementary School. Accidents, including a nearly fatal collision at Barclay Drive last month, have changed the calculus.
The Locust Street intersection poses some complexities for planners. That location will eventually be part of any couplet designed by the city.
"You can't talk about Locust (Street) without a couplet," Rankin said. "Do we end up building a signal there just to replace it with a couplet?"
The City of Sisters will be expected to bear 80 percent of the cost of the signals, while ODOT chips in the 20 percent balance.
That poses a problem for the city. Current Systems Development Charges (SDCs) assessed on new construction do not cover traffic signal costs. A new transportation SDC is being crafted that will, but the funds it generates will build slowly.
The city has exacted a total of about $280,000 from developers of subdivisions and commercial properties to mitigate traffic impacts, but that's a small percentage of the cost of the signal.
"The cost of the signal was always assumed to be much lower than it actually is," Rankin acknowledged.
The city could fund a signal and allow SDC charges to repay it over time. Rankin said that there will also be continued exactions from developers.
Rankin said that a traffic signal could ease traffic flow in Sisters and will certainly improve safety at a dangerous intersection. But the planner noted that a traffic signal is never a 100 percent safety fix. People still blow through yellow (or red) lights and make bad turns.
However, he said, it's probably the best idea for Barclay Drive.
"In that particular intersection ... a signal would enhance safety," he said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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