ODOT plans to patch up Cascade Avenue

As anyone who drives through Sisters can attest, Cascade Avenue (Highway 20) is deeply rutted.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is planning a temporary fix to that problem, with full-scale repaving of the highway through Sisters to come in about three years.

Wendy Holzman, chair of the City of Sisters Committee for Citizen Involvement (CCI), invited ODOT community liason Rex Holloway, along with ODOT's project leader Mike Darling, to CCI's regular monthly meeting Tuesday, April 20.

The ODOT personnel explained street improvement plans.

Step one is fixing the ruts on Cascade Avenue between Pine and Larch streets. The patch is a short-term fix. The plan is to do the work the week of May 17, ideally on a Tuesday/Wednesday, if it doesn't rain.

Repaving all of Cascade Avenue is anticipated for 2013.

CCI member Paul Alan Bennett asked why, suddenly, all this damage is appearing on our city streets.

"All the damage has been building below the surface," Darling stated. "The drainage dry wells are not working. Roads don't go bad overnight and often you don't see it. But we can see it in the

sub-surface by taking core samples. That's really how you know what's going on."

The city public works department will work with ODOT and hydrological engineers to figure out how to manage drainage better.

"Both pavers and dry wells are being considered. Several factors will determine which solution fits a given section of the street, including cost, how much water is involved, and sidewalk width," Darling said.

The main focus for all these improvements is to preserve pedestrian safety, provide accommodation for bicyclists, and improve the look and feel of downtown Sisters.

Several options are being discussed for sidewalk improvements. Key is increasing sidewalk width.

"Our current right-of-way is 60 feet from front of building to front of building," Darling stated. "Sidewalks will be increased from six to eight feet, parking is eight feed wide, and each traffic lane will be narrowed from sixteen to fourteen feet."

How will these changes affect safety?

"Fourteen feet is a pretty significant lane width," said City of Sisters Public Works Director Brad Grimm, "especially at 20 miles per hour. An average width on a highway is 12 feet or even 11 feet."

The majority of street improvements on Cascade Avenue from Pine to Locust are to be accomplished in 2012/2013.

To address the controversial back-in parking issue, the city council has decided on traditional diagonal parking until such time as the full length of Main Avenue can be converted to back-in diagonal parking simultaneously.

"It will still be a dedicated bike route," Grimm stated. "Main will just have front-in diagonal parking instead of back-in diagonal parking."

"There has been a lot of community discussion about the parking issue," City Manager Eileen Stein said. "We were concerned about having sections of both head-in and back-in diagonal parking on the same street, so we consulted with ODOT.

"Main Avenue is the bicycle corridor," she continued, "and one problem is that the curbs have already been designed to accommodate back in diagonal parking."

ODOT advised that changing the striping is a workable solution; however, there will be some parking loss in the short term.

CCI - a committee appointed by the city council - meets regularly at city hall the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. Their members consist of five representatives who live within the city, two who live outside the city limits and two high school students.

Holzman attends a lot of city meetings to gather information about events happening within Sisters. CCI publishes a monthly ad in The Nugget informing residents of important issues.

"We have some very vocal residents in Sisters," Holzman said, "but we also have some who don't want to go to a city hall meeting and get up to the podium and speak. We can serve as a voice between the public and the city council."

CCI's monthly meeting is open to the public. They can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected]