BEND, OR -- Bend's Midtown Crossings project is getting a lot of attention from the community. "We've been getting more feedback on the Midtown work thank I think we've probably gotten on almost any other project we've done as a city," says Ryan Oster, Bend's Director of Engineering. The city reports more than a thousand people participated in open house events over the last six months, focused on the various sections of work that make up the project. "Always looking for more feedback, though. The window's never closed," says Oster.
Greenwood reopened in August, under a "quick-build" pilot project. Oster tells KBND News, "Greenwood, obviously, is open and running now and we're definitely looking for feedback from the public on how they feel that that's operating." He says the city is collecting data online, and may host another in-person open house later in the fall.
Waterline work is underway on Second Street, between Franklin and Greenwood. "I'm going to be going in front of Council mid-October for approval of the next portion of the contract, which is to rebuild Second Street itself, on the surface," says Oster, "So it's turning it into a much more urban-friendly design for all of the users in the system." He expects that project to get underway later this year.
And Oster says, construction on Franklin should begin next summer, "Last Franklin open house was showing the design alternatives. So we're probably going to do another one before we start construction on Franklin, just to kind of share with everybody 'this is the alternative that was chosen, here's what the final design looks like and here's what you can expect during the construction period.'"
The largest project - the Hawthorne Overcrossing - is at least a year away, partly because it's reliant on federal funding. "Right now," says Oster, "We're finalizing our agreements with Region 4 here, from the state and ODOT, because the federal money can't come through to the city without coming through ODOT first." After public input, the city selected its preferred design for the bike and pedestrian bridge. Oster expects more open houses for that project, once a specific timeline is set.
