Oregon, Railroad Dampen Tigard’s Plan to Extend Street

Aug. 23–Tigard’s plan to extend Southwest Wall Street over Fanno Creek could be cut short tonight, when the City Council considers withdrawing Tigard’s bid for a new railroad crossing allowing the street to run from Southwest Hall Boulevard to Southwest Hunziker Street.

The council action — slated for the consent agenda, a collection of items that typically pass in one swift motion at the start of meetings — would pull back on the city’s efforts to build a railroad crossing at street level.

“It’s (the project) not going to happen the way we envision it. That connection won’t be made without that crossing,” said Gus Duenas, the city engineer. “Will Wall Street be extended across the creek to provide access to the other side? That’s a different decision.”

Although Tigard has wanted to build the street extension for several years, objections from Portland & Western Railroad and the Oregon Department of Transportation appear to have put the kibosh on at least part of those plans.

Instead of a connector, the city is looking at extending Southwest Wall Street to the far end of the library parking lot on Southwest Hall Boulevard, said Mayor Craig Dirksen. That would allow different traffic flow there, he said. “We’re doing the design and layout to achieve that right now,” pending council review.

Without the crossing, Dirksen noted, the Hall-Hunziker connection “won’t be possible.”

Although the city could still build over the railroad, an overpass would be both expensive and would take up too much land, Duenas said.

The railroad and ODOT have long had concerns with a street-level crossing. The railroad says that it needs about a mile of track for switching operations, according to city documents. And ODOT doesn’t want to allow another crossing without closing one elsewhere, the documents note.

That’s led to trouble finding agreement on the issue. A 2003 conceptual engineer’s report from the city, for example, noted “Meetings and correspondence with ODOT Rail and Portland & Western Railroad have not been positive.”

The city planned the almost $6 million project to carry up to 7,000 vehicles a day and ease traffic at two other key intersections. The construction cost for the crossing was estimated at $300,000.

The railroad crossing decision “is one specific action,” Duenas said. “I don’t want to read any more into it.”

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