Cascade renovation moves closer

More than 50 Sisters Country residents and business owners crowded into the council chambers at City Hall Thursday to participate in an interactive workshop on the details of the major street renovation project that will change the "vertical landscape" of Cascade Avenue.

Construction on the Cascade Avenue roadway will start in early 2013, which means the design details must be finalized by this time next year. Cascade Avenue (Highway 20) is a federally designated freight route, so the badly needed repair of the roadway will be conducted with or without the vertical landscape the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Sisters city staff are proposing.

That vertical landscape includes the sidewalks (pavers), trees, street lamps, benches, drinking fountains, trash receptacles, signage, and special colorizing treatment of the intersections.

Sisters Community Development Director Pauline Hardie and her staff, and Mike Darling, ODOT project manager out of the Bend office, have ensured that funding for this project will come primarily from grants. If the vertical landscape is done in conjunction with the ODOT highway construction, the city's contribution will only be about $200,000.

Without the vertical landscape elements, the renovated concrete highway and eight-foot sidewalks will present the look of a "concrete canyon," according to Mike Darling. The vertical landscape will significantly change the look of the six-block Sisters business district. The design of this vertical landscape was the subject of a public workshop in March, where Sisters residents were encouraged to weigh-in on a variety possible "looks" including "Ski Town" and "Western Town."

Based on the citizen input from the March workshop, consultants narrowed down the choices and refined the look of the vertical landscape. Using posterboard displays, a PowerPoint presentation and handouts, consultants presented several choices/concepts for pavers, trees, benches, light poles, benches, trash receptacles, signage, and surface treatment of the main intersections.

Cascade Avenue business owners aired a number of concerns about the construction project itself. The primary concern was for how long and how significantly customer access to their businesses would be disrupted.

ODOT and the consultants are working with the National Board of Contractors to figure out what is the best method of laying out the street to keep the businesses in full operation in those key summer months that they know are so important to Sisters businesses.

Local business owners also voiced concern about the details of who is going to be responsible for the components of the vertical landscape. They requested detailed and specific input from the city on who was responsible for sidewalk and street parking space snow removal. Further they wanted to know what their responsibility was for the trees and for leaf removal. Timely emptying of the trash cans and trash can repair was also an open question.

Another request voiced by several attendees was the need for proactive, innovative, attractive and informative signage to help tourists and through-traffic understand and navigate the construction, and to help visitors understand how to reach the businesses. Another consideration mentioned was to find ways to use Hood and Main avenues as alternates during construction by using signage, interim parking, interim access, and temporarily changing the stop signs to allow unimpeded traffic flow down Hood and Main during construction phase.

For more information click here. This will take you to the ODOT region 4 website, with detailed information on the Cascade Avenue project.