| Citizen committee develops alternatives |
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Citizen committee develops alternatives
After nearly six months of background meetings, the Highway 62 Corridor Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) members finally are putting pens in hand and are drawing what could be the future of Highway 62 (turn to the previous page to draw your own alternative).
The Highway, from Poplar Drive north toward White City, is a heavily traveled corridor with increasing traffic volume every year. Since late last summer, both the CAC and Project Development Team (PDT) have been working on the basis for a new roadway alternative. Now that the basics are out of the way, the team is taking the first steps toward what the future highway will look like.
"This has been a long time coming," said Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Project Leader Debbie Timms. "The teams have been meeting since last August considering design and safety options and working on the purpose and need for the project."
That 'purpose and need' is required for the federally-required Environmental Impact Statement, and is the filter by which alternatives will be screened. The conceptual alternatives were drawn by the team in February. In March, designers will take them and, using ODOT standards, make them geometrically correct.
The CAC includes representatives from retail, pedestrian and transit, trucking and freight, the VA Domiciliary, and developers in the Highway 62 Corridor.
ODOT currently has $38 million in the upcoming capital improvement program to improve Highway 62 from Poplar to Delta Waters. Construction is projected to start in 2009. But the Highway 62 Corridor EIS is looking at the entire corridor to Avenue H in White City.
"Because of the size of the project, and the dollars currently available, construction may have to be in phases, although we are looking for additional dollars, "said Timms.
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