The community Task Force, Oversight Team, project managment team, and public suggested ideas for reducing future traffic congestion across the Willamette River in the Salem-Keizer metropolitan area. The technical team developed these suggestions into concepts that could meet the project's Purpose and Need. At their August 15, 2007 meeting, the Task Force recommended 13 concepts to be advanced to the next phase of study as alternatives. This recommended Range of Alternatives was then adopted by the Oversight Team on August 17, 2007. The Oversight Team also asked the technical team to analyze if it might be possible to reduce the impacts of the alternatives with a direct Highway 22 connection (Red) by using a lesser mobility standard - one that allows for more congestion. Read more about the 13 alternatives below (as well as why some did not get advanced for more study).
The following alternatives will be evaluated against the project goals and objectives as part of the next project milestone, with the goal of selecting a small number of alternatives to be studied in detail in the draft environmental impact statement (Draft EIS). After the Draft EIS is completed, the preferred alternative will be selected and presented to the public at an open house. Click on the colors below to learn more about each alternative. These suggestions (previously called concepts) were advanced for further study because they have good connections to existing roads, are expected to have large numbers of vehicles crossing at these locations, and meet the Purpose and Need statement. All of the alternatives are located north of the existing bridges based on the study area refinement analysis done in October 2006.
Begins at the Salem Parkway on the east, extends south to Tryon Avenue, and connects to Wallace Road and Brush College Road on the west. Most of this bridge would need to be elevated because it crosses over the floodplain. This concept does not connect to Highway 22.
Read more about the Purple Alternative.
Begins at the Salem Parkway on the east, extends south to Tryon Avenue, and connects to Wallace Road and Hope Avenue on the west. This bridge would need to be elevated for most of its length, because it crosses over the floodplain. Two variations were advanced for further study, one with a connection to Highway 22 (Red) and one without.
Read more about the Orange Alternative and the Orange + Red Alternative
Begins at the Salem Parkway and Pine Street on the east, crosses the river and connects to Hope Avenue and Wallace Road on the west. Three variations were advanced for further study, one with a connection to Highway 22 (Red), one with a connection to Highway 22 (Red) but without the Pine and Hickory Street Couplet, and a third that does not connect to Highway 22 (Red) but does connect to Pine Street.
Read more about the White Alternative, the White + Red Alternative, and the White + Red Light Alternative.
Begins at Pine and Broadway Street on the east, extends slightly south to cross the river, then connects to Wallace Road and Hope Avenue on the west. Two variations were advanced for further study, one with a connection to Highway 22 (Red) and one without.
Read more about the Pink Alternative and the Pink + Red Alternative.
Begins at Academy and Broadway Streets on the east, extends over the river, then turns south to connect to Wallace and Orchard Heights Roads on the west. Includes direct connection to Highway 22 (Red).
Read more about the Blue + Red Alternative.
Begins at Hood Avenue and Broadway Street on the east, crosses the river and connects to Wallace and Orchard Heights Roads on the west. Two variations were advanced for further study, one with a connection to Highway 22 (Red) and one without.
Read more about the Yellow Alternative and the Yellow + Red Alternative.
Begins at Market and Broadway Streets on the east, crosses the river and connects Glen Creek and Wallace Roads on the west. Included a direct connection to Highway 22 (Red).
Read more about the Green + Red Alternative.
This alterative is made up of two new bridges (at the pink and green alignments), each serving as an independent bridge but developed at a smaller scale (each bridge alone doesn't meet the mobility standards used by ODOT and the City of Salem). No direct connection to Highway 22 (Red) is included with this alternative.
Read more about the Forest Alternative.
Transportation System Management and Demand Management (Transit and Roadway Efficiency) Other ways to deal with congestion will be studied further with the intention of identifying TSM/TDM measures that can be combined with any of the alternatives under consideration. Examples include: System Management tries to get more use out of what already exists. There are several ways to do this, such as adding priority lanes for carpools or buses. Demand Management tries to reduce or shift travel demand away from the places and times that are congested. This is done a number of ways, including offering flexible work hours, expanding carpool programs, investigating pricing and tolling options, and changing land uses.
Read more about the TSM/TDM Features and the Low Build Alternative.
Bicycle and pedestrian facilities (such as bike paths and sidewalks) are included in every alternative and will connect with existing trails and sidewalks. back to top
Click on the words below to learn more about each concept that will not be studied further. Or read an archived page of the preliminary concepts.
The Purple concept as developed (Wallace Road/Brush College to Tryon) connects to Doaks Ferry via Brush College. While making a direct connection to Doaks Ferry Road would be possible, this connection would be located significantly north of the Brush College connection, making it inferior to the Purple in terms of its draw of trips from the existing bridge. Also, because Brush College connects to Doaks Ferry, the transportation function of this suggestion is already provided by the Purple concept.
Connecting the Purple alternative to River Bend Road instead of Brush College Road is not being considered. Connection at Brush College ties into the arterial network of West Salem, whereas River Bend Road connects to local and residential streets. back to top
This concept would combine the west side of the Orange concept with the east side of the Blue concept (Academy/Broadway Streets to Wallace Road/Hope Avenue). The function provided by this concept is already provided by Blue concept.
This concept would have an east side interchange at Pine Street that would be significantly larger (similar to Yellow or Green), than the couplet that is proposed. Also, the White concept provides similar traffic function and performance and so the function of a Pink concept with an east side interchange is provided already. back to top
This concept would combine the west side of the Blue concept with the east side of the Orange concept (Wallace Road/Orchard Heights Avenue to Salem Parkway and Commercial/Liberty Couplet). Traffic operational results would be similar to the Orange concept. Current concepts include these alignment components. This suggestion does not represent a unique alignment that requires seperate evaluation.
This concept would have a directional “Y” interchange on the east end (which would limit vehicle movement to the Liberty/Commercial couplet and not connect directly to the street grid in east Salem). Providing east-west connectivity is important to reduce traffic on the existing bridges and meet the Purpose and Need. This concept does not provide a significant improvement over the other Blue + Red alternative that has been advanced for further study and does not provide the same level of east-west connectivity. back to top
A tunnel under the river poses many engineering challenges including the additional space needed to descend under the river and climb back to the surface - this would result in tunnel entrances some distance from desirable locations. A tunnel also would not provide any bicycle and pedestrian access. Tunnel costs are orders of magnitude greater than other concepts.
For the Yellow concept, making a connection from west Salem using the Red alignment (headed south to Highway 22) could be added to the west side interchange (where Red and Yellow come together), but this connection is not warranted based on future traffic volumes. back to top
This concept would combine the west side of the Yellow concept with the east side of the Green concept (Wallace Road/Orchard Heights Avenue to Market Street). Traffic operational results would be similar to Yellow. Other concepts already include these alignment components. This suggestion does not represent a unique alignment that requires seperate evaluation.
It does not appear to be feasible to exit directly to Edgewater rather than down a long frontage road to connect with the Rosemont off-ramp, as proposed, to avoid impacts to an open space and pedestrian-friendly historic business district. back to top
Four lanes on Highway 22, west of the existing bridges, are being proposed for the purposes of this project. The suggestion to increase the capacity of Highway 22 (Red) to six lanes will likely be required at some point in the future but is not appropriate at this time.
A bridge closer to the existing bridge (south of the Green alignment) was not considered for several reasons. On the east side, there is not a good east-west street connection point. Belmont, Union, and Division are all located where the Commercial/Liberty couplet or Front Street bypass are located. On the west, the connection point would either be Glen Creek or the old railroad right-of-way which is too close to the existing bridgeheads. back to top
Making Salem Parkway to Highway 22 the major movement and the connection to Wallace Road the minor movement on new bridges is not being considered. Traffic modeling shows east-west traffic to be roughly 2/3 of the volume and north-south to be 1/3.
No feasible improvements to the existing bridges as stand-alone concepts were identified in this process, in particular with respect to connecting the expanded bridges to the street systems at either end (see response below to improvments to exisitng bridge). Similarly, double-decking the existing bridge would have the same issue. In addition, a double-decker bridge requires longer distance and more space to provide ramp connections which would make it difficult at best to tie in to the existing constrained areas in downtown or west Salem. back to top
Traffic analysis has shown that 3-4 lanes would need to be added to the existing bridges to carry the anticipated future traffic. While this in itself is possibly feasible, the design team was not able to develop any concepts that would make all of the key connections from existing streets to the bridges perform adequately, either under the Adopted or Alternate Mobility Standards. Therefore, this concept (previously referred to as Teal and Teal Medium) was removed from further consideration as a stand-alone concept.
The intent of this concept (previously referred to as the Brown Concept) was that by making both existing bridges two-way, one bridge could function for local traffic and the other for regional or through traffic, thus improving traffic flow by reducing the conflicts or merges between the two traffic streams. While this principle is sound, the design team was not able to develop any concepts that would meet either Adopted or Alternate Mobility Standards. As with other existing bridge concepts, one of the key constraints is the physical space on either end of the bridge to include the required number of approach lanes to connect the existing street system to the new bridge or bridges. back to top
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