| OR 126 Expressway Management Plan |
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The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), along with the City of Springfield and Lane County, is beginning work on the third phase of the OR 126 Expressway Management Plan. During this phase of work, the project team will refine conceptual intersection/interchange designs for OR 126 at 52nd Street and Main Street, and select a preferred design for each location. The team will also identify access plans, potential local street circulation changes, and other policies intended to enhance the function of the preferred design. Opportunities for public participation in the design and evaluation process will begin this fall.
Further study of the 42nd Street interchange has been deferred until Phase 4 of this project (2010) when Mohawk Boulevard and Pioneer Parkway, the remaining two interchanges along OR 126, will be evaluated.
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| Design concepts |
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Preliminary design concepts for the OR 126 Expressway Management Plan were developed by staff from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), the City of Springfield, Lane County and the consultant team. The design concepts were shared with community members at a workshop on November 17, 2005 and at a Sounding Board meeting on January 25, 2006. This process resulted in 15 preliminary design concepts.
The 15 preliminary design concepts were screened against specific criteria (such as cost, traffic operations, land use impacts or freight impacts) to narrow the range of options for further analysis. Screened concepts were shared with the public at an Open House on June 1, 2006.
Based on public input and more refined screening, the project team and the Ad Hoc Steering Committee, a group of elected officials from the City of Springfield and Lane County and senior staff from ODOT, reviewed the evaluation of the design concepts and has recommended the following concepts for further study in the third project phase:
52nd Street design concepts
Main Street design concepts
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| Policy concepts |
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The project team also prepared a memo describing possible access management and land use tools that could be used to protect the long-term function of the expressway if any of these design concepts were constructed.
Policy concept memo
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| Expressway Management Plan |
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What is an Expressway Management Plan?
OR 126 is identified as an expressway in the 1999 Oregon Highway Plan. An expressway is a special road designation that recognizes the importance of a route for freight movement, regional traffic and intrastate travel.
An Expressway Management Plan identifies needed improvements to the expressway and strategies to ensure that those public improvements are protected in the long term. OR 126 and its interchanges and intersections were built over 40 years ago, and the highway is not designed to safely support the level of traffic expected as the Springfield area continues to develop.
Phase 3 of the plan will focus on refining recommendations for the 42nd, 52nd and Main Street areas. The final EMP will provide a long-range plan for OR 126 from Pioneer Parkway to Main Street (including the Pioneer Parkway, Mohawk Boulevard and 42nd Street interchanges).
Topics Covered in an Expressway Management Plan
The EMP recommendations to develop and manage the expressway will include some combination of the following:
Modernization (Design Concepts)
Modernization refers to increasing expressway capacity and safety by adding new lanes, improving interchanges, widening bridges, replacing at-grade intersections with freeway-style interchanges or improving local circulation with frontage roads. Design concepts will be prepared for the three existing interechanges at Pioneer Parkway, Mohawk Boulevard and 42nd Street as well as the 52nd Street intersection, and Main Street intersection. These concepts include ways to improve the capacity, safety and workability of the interchanges and intersections through construction. The concepts include new or improved configurations for interchanges and intersections and the surrounding transportation network.
Access management
Access management refers to changing the way people access businesses and roads in the vicinity of interchanges and the way people get on or off the expressway and could include strategies such as combining, closing or realigning driveways, redesigning intersections at cross-streets or making improvements to local roads to improve circulation.
Land use management
Land use management refers to applying zoning overlays, use restrictions or trip allowances to development that is planned within the interchange influence area to maintain efficient and safe operation of the expressway.
Demand management
Demand management refers to strategies to change trip generation or driver behavior to reduce congestion on the expressway at peak times such as incentives to encourage employees to take transit, pedestrian and bicycle improvements or changes to delivery schedules to occur at off-peak times.
Local circulation improvements
Local circulation improvements refer to improvements to local roads to provide alternatives to using the expressway for local trips.
Adoption and Implementation of the Expressway Management Plan
The EMP will be adopted into the Oregon Highway Plan by the Oregon Transportation Commission, the board that oversees the Oregon Department of Transportation. The City of Springfield and Lane County will provide plan compatibility findings with the EMP. If applicable, components of the EMP will be adopted into the joint City-County Transportation System Plan (TransPlan), joint City-County Comprehensive Plan (Metro Plan) and city or county municipal codes. Intergovernmental agreements may also be developed as part of the EMP process.
Expressway Management Plan Partnership
The City of Springfield and Lane County are collaborating with ODOT throughout the EMP development and approval process. A project management team composed of key staff from the three partner jurisdictions and the project consulting team meets monthly to oversee the day-to-day development of the project. An ad hoc steering committee composed of representatives from the Springfield City Council, Lane County Commission and ODOT Region 2 provides policy direction and final decision-making leading to the finalization of the EMP.
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| Public involvement and contact |
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The third phase of the OR 126 Expressway Management Plan will include opportunities for the public to participate. Please contact Savannah Crawford at Savannah.Crawford@odot.state.or.us or 541.747.1354 with any questions or to be included on the project mailing list.
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| Phase 1 Report |
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The OR 126 EMP is being completed in three phases. The first phase culminated in a report detailing the existing and future conditions on OR 126. The Phase 1 Report is available for review online.
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