Look Both Ways in Downtown OC
Posted by Lloyd Purdy on 7 November
Two-way traffic soon to be restored to downtown marketplace.
Within the next two weeks, downtown Oregon City’s Main Street will convert back to a two-way street. Based upon two years of work that includes a range of downtown revitalization efforts, Federal and ODOT grant funding, as well as recommendations by numerous consultants, the City of Oregon City will stripe a new center line down Main Street in order to return the street to its original circulation flow.
A video animation produced by Funnelbox Production Studios in downtown Oregon City guides visitors through this new circulation pattern.
A two-way Main Street simplifies the circulation system in downtown Oregon City and provides more efficient access to on-street parking and side streets in the downtown core. The biggest change this year will be along Main Street between 6th and 9th Streets, which had been a one-way stretch of road when downtown was host to Clackamas County’s administrative offices.
“A two-way Main Street works in downtown Oregon City because we’re welcoming visitors off of 99E and making driving downtown a more simple and intuitive process,” said Lloyd Purdy, Director of the non-profit downtown revitalization program MSOC. “Downtown Oregon City is evolving into a retail and restaurant friendly marketplace, not just a center for creative professionals.”
A two-way Main Street circulation system will connect future development on what used to be 1st through 5th Street (currently Willamette Falls Development Site) to the downtown core and to infill development opportunities north of 10th Street. “A two-way Main Street becomes a unifying characteristic of our downtown marketplace,” said Purdy. “It’s a physical connection that benefits all downtown.”
The conversion back into a two-way Main Street wraps up the first phase a multi-phase, multi-year project that could ultimately culminate in more than $4 million in streetscape enhancements downtown from 5th to 15th Streets. The City of Oregon City working with ODOT and the non-profit downtown revitalization program, Main Street Oregon City, competed for and was awarded nearly $2.4 million in Federal and State funding for streetscape improvement infrastructure projects focused on making downtown Oregon City more pedestrian and visitor friendly.
An animated video illustrating the new circulation system of downtown Oregon City can be seen by clicking here.
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