Decision time on Cascade Avenue project

Sisters is going to have to settle on a direction for the Cascade Avenue project once and for all - and it's going to have to happen soon.

The current schedule for the $6 million renovation project calls for shutting down Cascade Avenue January 2, 2014, and reopening the street before Memorial Day, May 21, 2014.

The plan calls for restoring the underlying structure of the roadbed, paving in tinted concrete and extensive streetscape renovations. The completed project will include 14-foot travel lanes, 8-foot-wide parallel-parking stalls and 8-foot-wide sidewalks. Pedestrian crossings will be improved with new crosswalks and large bulb-outs.

Other planned amenities include benches, light poles, water fountains, trash cans, bicycle racks, groves of trees and extensive landscaping.

In recent weeks, some downtown merchants have raised opposition to the project, fearing that a five-month closure of the main artery through town will effectively kill their businesses.

Representatives of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) are willing to take another look at how the project is rolled out - but the window for that is narrowing because bidding documents have to be prepared this fall.

"We're in the 11th hour," ODOT Region 4 Manager Bob Bryant told The Nugget last week.

Switching from concrete to asphalt paving is a possibility, Bryant avers. There's not much cost difference, though concrete has a longer life-cycle. Going to asphalt paving would eliminate the need to fully close Cascade Avenue. But there's a catch: Asphalt paving requires warmer temperatures and that means a later start, probably no earlier than May and later than that if the paving is to be done at night.

"It enables for keeping more traffic on Cascade, but it likely pushes things into the busy season," Bryant said.

Sidewalks could be poured during the winter season.

If the community wants to stick with concrete, the plan could shift to a block-by-block closure, but that would extend the length of the project.

Bryant and ODOT spokesman Peter Murphy emphasized that they want to work with the downtown business community.

"We want to be sensitive to business," said Bryant. "We're not here to break a business. Right now, it's all about the economy."

At the same time, Bryant says, ODOT has to address the concerns and needs of a broad constituency of travelers and haulers.

"The highway is more than just Cascade; it's more than the city of Sisters," he said. "It serves all of Central Oregon."

Bryant said that ODOT has essentially "ignored" the downtown core for a long time, a not-unusual pattern for the agency where extensive work is bound to be both costly and disruptive. That can't continue, he said.

"It (the highway) has outlasted its useful life," he said. "It's failed structurally; it's not just the surface."

Bryant acknowledged that it's conceivable that the project could be pushed back a year in hopes that economic conditions improve enough that business owners feel they can weather the impact of a closure or extensive disruption.

"We could talk about bumping the project from '14 out to '15," he said.

Would that jeopardize the funding package the agency and the city has put together for the project?

"I would say no, but there's no certainty," Bryant said. "Our strong recommendation is keep it on track for 2014."

The City of Sisters is working to schedule a public meeting on the subject in October. Before that, ODOT hopes to meet with the cadre of business owners who are most vocal in their concerns about the impact of the project.

ODOT is looking for "a unified voice" on the final direction of the project.

"The more we can build a majority consensus around this the better," Bryant said.

ODOT spokesman Peter Murphy said he welcomes input, particularly on the concrete/asphalt choice. Email him at [email protected]