Cascade Avenue project will break ground in 2013

A major renovation project on Cascade Avenue in downtown Sisters is now expected to break ground in 2013, with bids going out in February, 2013.

Mike Darling, Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) project manager for the Cascade Avenue improvement project, brought his team to City Hall Thursday morning for a two-hour presentation and discussion of the next steps for the project.

After reviewing timelines, plans, drawings and budgets for the various construction project staging options, the council reached consensus on Option II. Several councilors preferred Option IIC.

Option II would close down two to three blocks of both east- and west-bound lanes of Cascade Avenue at a time. The Cascade Avenue construction would run for approximately six months, with total construction activities (on and off Cascade Avenue) ending in the early summer of 2014. Option II is both quicker to complete and less expensive. This option also promises better downtown access and easier freight access.

Darling said, "We all realize that when construction starts there will be pain involved on the part of the community. How do we minimize that? How do the construction staging options minimize that?"

There will be no daytime construction work anywhere on Cascade Avenue between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Based on council input, the Labor Day date may be moved to include the entire month of September. For the duration of the downtown portion of the project (11 weeks), all freight traffic will be routed through the industrial park via Barclay Drive/Locust Street.

Using data from the workshop, ODOT will revise and finalize their staging plans and presentation materials. ODOT expects to have these materials up on the project website for review the week of February 6.

Between February 13 and 24, Rex Holloway, community liaison for ODOT, will be conducting focus groups in Sisters with business and property owners. Holloway and his team will be visiting every business on Cascade Avenue to hand out materials and personally explain the staging options for the project.

In early March ODOT will present their compiled interview and focus group results to the city council for final approval.

With a year to go, the project is funded to $4 million, which will cover all the major highway and sidewalk reconstruction work. But the overall project is still $1.4 million short. There are a number of grants that the city did not get, and there are a number of grants where the city is still in the running. If a significant portion of the shortfall is not in place by the February 2013 bid/let date, a portion of the streetscape improvements will have to be postponed. The infrastructure construction to support the streetscape (piping, cables, etc.) is part of the highway and sidewalk budget.