New curb ramps mark progress on crosswalk construction at W Burnside Street & St. Clair Avenue

Workers placed concrete for new corners, sidewalk, and a curb extension this week, marking a milestone in construction of the new crosswalk at W Burnside Street & St. Clair Avenue.

Underneath the concrete and roadway is a web of pipes serving various utilities and electrical connections. Workers needed to relocate, reconnect, or build new underground infrastructure before placing the new concrete on top.

Workers are now shifting to the north side of W Burnside Street to complete similar work. They will then install signal equipment for the crosswalk. Permanent repaving and striping will complete the project.

We expect to finish construction later this year. In the meantime, people traveling through the site should continue to expect periodic delays. W Burnside Street will remain open with one travel lane in each direction.

Thank you for your patience as we deliver this important crosswalk improvement on W Burnside Street.

Downtown streets require extra care

Old assets, spotty records, and a rat's nest of underground utilities often make Portland's downtown streets especially challenging to work on.

We do our best to design around conflicts and reduce costs where possible.

When designing the new crosswalk at W Burnside Street & St. Clair Avenue, we used ground penetrating radar to verify the locations of buried historic streetcar tracks on W Burnside Street. This allowed us to place conduit and set paving repair limits in a way to that would reduce the risk of hitting the tracks. Exposing buried tracks triggers costly and time-consuming requirements for hazardous material removal and even historic resource protections.

Accidental damage sometimes occurs despite our efforts. This requires quick action from inspectors and other public works bureaus. After our contractor damaged a sewer line on this project, we worked closely with the Bureau of Environmental Services to rapidly repair the damage following worker safety guidelines and environmental rules.

Separately, a communications conduit on W Burnside Street was cut by a private utility, requiring them to repair fiber optic strands over several days of work.