Transportation Archives - Page 11 of 11

Cannon Beach Parks and Trails Master Planning

Cannon Beach is a community of about 600 full-time residents that attracts over 750,000 visitors a year to its scenic beaches, charming shops and restaurants, festivals and events, and vibrant art community. In emphasizing its features, a comprehensive master plan for long-range development of the City of Cannon Beach’s existing park and trail network.

A Comprehensive Master Plan for Long-Range Development

In addition to its natural features, Cannon Beach also encompasses lands with a rich and important cultural history for Native Americans and early settlers. As the City’s first Parks and Trail Master Plan, the clear, functional document addresses the recreational needs of both the local community and the seasonal influx of visitors, while raising awareness of the historical significance this special place holds. Leading the public engagement process and design, Otak developed a plan that will create an inviolable “green framework” around which other land uses will naturally coalesce and create benefits for the community. After the master plan was finished, the City retained Otak to redesign a state park at Tolovana Wayside, along with beach access plaza and interpretive art in celebration of Oregon’s famed “Beach Bill.”

Bucklin Hill Bridge and Estuary Enhancement

Kitsap County wanted to build more than just a bridge. Bucklin Hill Road was an increasingly busy two-lane arterial in Silverdale that crossed the Clear Creek estuary. For many years, the County sought to widen the road and replace its two 72-inch culverts with a bridge to improve fish passage and restore the natural estuary habitat. In leading the design, Otak also prepared environmental documentation and coordinated significant permitting.

Eliminating Traffic Congestion and Fish Barriers

A decades-long goal was achieved in designing a 240-foot four-lane bridge and widened road that improves traffic and creates fish passage for the region’s endangered salmon populations. Using an integrated approach, the design team worked with County staff, local businesses, and Silverdale residents to make the bridge part of the community, implementing new lighting, scenic overlooks, bike lanes and trail connections. The design raises the road to allow clearance for the estuary and in doing so also provides much better grades along the corridor for pedestrians, including at curb ramps. Construction accounted for staging issues related to working in a tidal zone, road closures and traffic impacts, and the relocation of nine utilities, including a major telecommunications line in completing this vital connection for the community.

Celebrating the Completion of the Hallam Street/Castle Creek Bridge Project

A community thank you event was held to celebrate the successful completion of the Castle Creek Bridge/Hallam Street Improvement project in Aspen, Colorado. The event had a hot cocoa bar and site tours guided by the City of Aspen, Gould Construction, and the Otak design team.

The project team held the event to thank the Aspen community for their patience, participation, and understanding of the construction process, as well as to highlight the value of the critical capital asset project and close the loop on community education for the improvements and value added.

A large round of applause went to PR Studio for assembling an event of this magnitude and for their diligent efforts in public involvement during project construction. Additional thanks go to the City of Aspen; members of the Otak design team, which consisted of Connect One Design, Z-Group Architects, KL&A, and RMH Group; and Gould Construction, for taking this project from conception to completion.

We were honored to be part of this important project to improve the community amenities in the City of Aspen.

Residents Weigh-In on Mountlake Terrace’s New Gateway Plaza

It’s the future. Throughout the Puget Sound region, light rail carries residents and commuters on their daily commute. The morning is brisk and unseasonably bright. You find yourself in Mountlake Terrace, walking down the station steps. What do you see?

On Tuesday, December 11, the City of Mountlake Terrace and Otak met with residents to answer that question, sharing initial design concepts for a new pedestrian plaza outside of the City’s upcoming Sound Transit light rail station. The aptly named “Gateway Plaza” is intended not only to be visitors’ first impression of the city, but also an entrance to Snohomish County itself.

“It gives an identity to the area,” said Curtis LaPierre, Otak’s senior landscape architect for the project. Already heavily traveled, the plaza will add “a nice place for pedestrians to sit, meet up, and even to stroll through.” Listen to Curtis talking about this exciting project.

The meeting was a success, according to LaPierre. He and Jeff Betz, City of Mountlake Terrace’s Recreation and Parks Director, spent more than an hour with residents, taking questions and receiving ideas around the three preliminary focal concepts: waterfall, lighted, and community tree.

LaPierre explained that the biggest challenge for residents at these kinds of meetings is getting away from the placement of individual objects—like trees and paved paths—and explaining what they want to experience. This wasn’t the case for the December 11th meeting. “There was good communication and they had lots of good and useful ideas.”

The next community meeting will take place in January. Residents are encouraged to attend and comment through the City’s project web page, where they can find more information, including illustrations of the proposed concepts.

Check out MLTnews detailed reporting of the meeting here.

Salmon Return After 100 Years!

Salmon returned to the Hunter Point Road culvert after a 100-year absence, thanks to the investment of Thurston County, Washington, in rehabilitating the culvert and the stream. See for yourself here.

The culvert was in a deep ravine and had a large drop at the downstream end, which blocked fish passage. Thurston County received state grants for culvert replacements, and Hunter Point Road was their highest-priority fish passage project. The project involved a new bridge and complete stream reconstruction, which was completed in fall 2018. Complications included high road embankments, a single access road (dead end), a stream confluence immediately upstream of the crossing, and the need to provide habitat function to the stream beneath the bridge structure. After consulting with the tribes and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the team elected to include large woody debris in a variety of configurations along with specific stream bed geometries and materials.

During construction, the fish salvage team relocated approximately 500 fish from the downstream reach, indicating the high potential of future use upstream of the project. Otak structural engineers designed an 80-foot-span bridge to replace the existing four-foot-diameter culvert. Shortly after construction was complete, in November 2018, videos captured the return of spawning salmon—after almost a century-long absence. This was truly a historic moment, and a tribute to the funding agencies and Thurston County for funding this project and hiring Otak to bring it to fruition.

Otak’s team (Doug Sarkkinen—project manager; Elizabeth Sheehy—structural; and Nathan Dasler, Ryan Makie, Frank Sottosanto, and Mike Rafferty—water resources) is looking forward to seeing continued fish in the system, the new channel settling in, and the vegetation establish.

Improving the Streets of Tillamook

Otak, in partnership with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Quincy Engineering, provided design and construction management for this $25 million roadway improvement in the heart of Tillamook. The project made significant improvements to both US101 and OR6 and the intersection between the two highways, and it included reconstruction of the US101 bridge over Hoquarton Slough.

Otak designed the one-way couplet through downtown Tillamook and provided stormwater treatment and landscape architecture services throughout the project. With construction starting in summer 2016, we provided construction management and inspection to oversee work progress. The project was substantially completed in October 2018, a success story for both ODOT and the City of Tillamook.

On October 31, 2018, the City and ODOT held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the 2nd Street plaza, a festival street that will be used for farmers markets and other outdoor festivities to bring the community together. Members of the local community shared stories, along with ODOT and state representatives such as Senator Betsy Johnson and Congressman Kurt Schrader.

This project provides great value to the Tillamook community through improved traffic flow, pedestrian connectivity, and safety improvements, and it continues downtown revitalization with the new streetscape and aesthetics.

The Otak team is excited for ODOT, the City of Tillamook and its citizens, and the road users who will experience this great project!

Burnham Street

The area around Burnham Street in Tigard, Oregon had damaged pavement, poor pedestrian access, and increased flooding. Working with City leaders, a concept was developed with engineering improvements to both Burnham Street as well as an adjacent street to benefit the neighborhood.

Roadway Improvements and Green Infrastructure for a Revitalized Downtown

Roadway improvements include features such as flow-through stormwater planters, complete undergrounding of aerial utilities, and multiple pedestrian crossings. Burnham’s sidewalks were widened to feature a unique scoring pattern, stormwater planters with sitting areas, and over 60 new street trees. Burnham Street is part of a revitalized downtown core, serving as a destination for pedestrians and visitors to businesses, an urban plaza, and farmer’s market venue. Green elements consist of 17 stormwater planters, a vegetated swale, stormfilter units, and LED lighting. In an effort to encourage visitors to spend more time on this street, we included benches and decoratively designed planters edged with basalt boulders.

19th Avenue and Sparrow Street Greenway Design

When a proposed development threatened a historic neighborhood’s quiet streets, the City of Milwaukie recognized that a woonerf street design might provide an appropriate, cost-effective solution.

An Innovative Woonerf Street Design Updates a Historic Neighborhood

A woonerf is a living street, a concept from the Netherlands and Belgium, with shared space, traffic calming, and low speed limits. Using the concept, the complete design identified opportunities to increase active transportation, including bicycling and walking, and highlight the district’s identity. Hosting a series of neighborhood meetings, the team brought together an active public to solve conflicting goals and unify on a vision and the ultimate design. We assuaged initial concerns regarding change in the community and made sure the design reflected the neighborhood’s qualities. The pedestrian-friendly final design created a unique neighborhood greenway connection between two parks along the Willamette River. Otak provided design assistance and worked with the neighborhood and City engineering staff to develop an innovative woonerf design in Island Station neighborhood’s section of 19^th Avenue and Sparrow Street. The City adopted the design along with new policies and engineering standards for use in other locations.