Fence installed by ODOT abruptly closes access to Willamette Park at Nevada St

Started to ride downtown Friday from OPB to find workers putting a fence across the trail where it passes RR tracks. Very annoying — particularly when three vehicle crossings with only stop signs are nearby. http://pic.twitter.com/A7m2TH8GoM

— Jeff Mapes (@Jeffmapes) January 8, 2018

UPDATE: ODOT says they didn’t install the fence. Portland Parks says they did. We’ll get it sorted ASAP.

The Oregon Department of Transportation has erected a fence across an entrance into Willamette Park. Jeff Mapes, an employee of nearby Oregon Public Broadcasting, encountered a crew putting the finishing touches on the fence this morning. “Very annoying,” he shared in a tweet this morning.

“We did not close the path nor install the fence; it is an ODOT endeavor that is impacting access to our park.”
— Tweet from @PDXParksandRec

Based on a series of Twitter responses to Mapes, it appears the Portland Parks & Recreation Bureau (PP&R) has also been caught off guard by the new fence. “We did not close the path nor install the fence; it is an ODOT endeavor that is impacting access to our park,” the agency wrote. The fence is just a few yards from a railroad crossing that’s under the jurisdiction of ODOT’s Rail Division. “It has been a usable crossing and was just now fenced off. Not a good look,” Parks commented on Twitter on this morning. “It is a complicated endeavor and a hassle for commuters and park visitors!”

The path section in question is a carfree entrance into the park that’s right outside the OPB headquarters on Nevada Street (see map below), just one block east of SW Macadam Avenue. For years it was an unimproved and relatively sketchy crossing (I’ve used it several times to get to OPB studios) with big bumps and cracked pavement. It was repaved a few years ago in advance of the Portland Water Bureau’s Hannah Mason Pump Station project, which the City of Portland opened back in June. Another factor that has recently brought more attention to this crossing is PP&R’s Willamette Park redevelopment project.

The three entrances to the park. The fence has closed the middle entrance (Nevada St.).

In a statement provided via email a few minutes ago, PP&R Media Relations Manager Mark Ross said the fence was required by ODOT Rail. Ross says due to the impact it will have on park visitors, PP&R is, “working quickly to craft and put up signs to direct people to use the other park entrances, on SW Miles St. or SW Nebraska St.” The Nebraska St entrance is about 1/3 of a mile north and Miles is about one-tenth of a mile south.

Using those other entrances, Mapes said on Twitter this morning, “Means riding on Macadam or sidewalk for a ways. Both less safe than riding over tracks that are seldom used.”

View of Nevada Street entrance into Willamette Park. The new fence is just on the other side of those trees.

Why did ODOT erect the fence? We’re still waiting to hear from them directly; but Ross said it’s because the current crossing doesn’t meet federal railroad crossing requirements.

This seems to be a case where the path and its users have gotten tangled up in miles of bureauratic red tape. In addition to PP&R and ODOT Rail, the Portland Water Bureau and the Trolley Consortium (a Metro-led group that must sign-off on any changes to the design of the crossing) all involved in the design, permitting and funding.

Ross says the fence could be up for several months. “We anticipate the permitting to take much of the winter and possibly into spring before we can begin the necessary improvements. Once we have permits and a legal Crossing Order, we will look to make the needed improvements. Note that a contractor and funding have not been secured yet for this work, so a definitive schedule is not known yet. We continue to work on that with the PWB [Portland Water Bureau].”

While we understand the bureaucratic, multi-jurisdictional complexity here, it’s very unfortunate that ODOT decided to erect a fence over a path and did so without warning and without a plan for detour signage for users. The fence, which is black and has no reflectors or signs giving prior warning that it exists, is also a safety hazard. Paul Souders shared on Twitter just now that, “I (almost literally) ran into this fence this morning.”

We’re in contact with ODOT’s communications person but have yet to receive a detailed response. We’ll update this story when we do.

UPDATE: ODOT Public Information Officer Don Hamilton says ODOT didn’t do it. Here’s his email:

Let me address ODOT’s role in this.

1) We strongly encouraged the City of Portland to put up a fence there after certain safety elements at that crossing had been removed.

2) ODOT did not put up that fence.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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