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Repairs and long-needed upgrades planned for Portland roads


Residents on this street in Southwest Portland have been wanting sidewalks. They city plans to add them. (KATU Photo)
Residents on this street in Southwest Portland have been wanting sidewalks. They city plans to add them. (KATU Photo)
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The Portland Bureau of Transportation held the second of three open houses Thursday night in Multnomah Village to unveil its road improvement plans for the area in the coming months.

Those plans are contained in the Fix Our Streets projects funded by a ballot measure voters passed in May. A gas tax will pay for improvement projects that should ensure the long-term health of some of the city’s busier roads.

“So what our goal is to do is preventative maintenance,” said John Brady, spokesman for PBOT. “Sometimes it’s as simple as sealing the cracks. You can extend the life of the road and save money over the long term. The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets.”

Aside from the roads, residents in the area of Southwest Vermont Street and 37th Avenue have been clamoring for the city to provide more sidewalks.

“When I try to walk my dogs, it’s very scary. There’s lots of places that I have to avoid,” said Barbara Bodzin.

She lives just above Multnomah Boulevard, and she’s faced plenty of struggles due to the area’s lack of sidewalk space.

“I just go different roads, because I’m just afraid because they can’t see me,” she said. “The drivers can’t see me, and I’m afraid that they won’t know that I’m there or my dog might decide to go chase a squirrel or something, so I think it would be nice if there were sidewalks there.”

As part of the city’s plans, those sidewalks are on the way.

All of these projects are set to be completed in the next four years. PBOT will hold its next open house in North Portland later this summer.

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