Burnside/Couch couplet

[tworivers]

Wish there was more information in this article about the project being split into two pieces, eastside and westside. I think the eastside is much farther along.


Engineering phase next for Burnside/Couch
Portland Office of Transportation finishes survey work quickly with help of laser technology

POSTED: 04:00 AM PDT Tuesday, July 8, 2008
BY TYLER GRAF (djc)

Street-level surveying for the Burnside Couch Street Project, which will turn those major roads into one-way couplets, has completed, and now the fast-tracked project is rushing into the engineering phase.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the project will start construction in 2009, however.

Yet the Portland Office of Transportation is trying to stay on schedule for the project, which has garnered mixed reviews from residents and developers in regard to how it will change the look and feel of the streets. So the city sought the assistance of a planning and engineering company that could expedite the surveying process in the quickest possible way.

H.W. Lochner Inc. was the company contracted to do the surveying work using its innovative LD3 LIDAR laser technology. It melds traditional laser scanning with digital photography and GPS tracking, delivering a photo-realistic “cloud of information points.”

“It was a lot of work to work on a project of this magnitude,” said Eric DeLeon, a Lochner engineering technician, referring specifically to the heavy amount of traffic and construction work happening in Old Town/Chinatown, where the couplet will run.

But the surveying work was much quicker using the laser technology, he added.

Project managers, including Bill Hoffman of PDOT, want to keep that speed-of-light quickness continuing during the project’s early phases – during what’s known as the “30- percent design” portion of the project. PDOT wants 30 percent of the design work completed before money for the final project is earmarked, to determine if there “are any surprises,” Hoffman said.

In the 30-percent design phase, engineers map and align the horizontal, ground-level aspects of the project. That work will likely wrap up during early 2009.

Afterward, PDOT will update City Council on the project, with new cost estimates taking into account the work performed by Lochner and the engineering contractor Harper Houf Peterson Righellis.

“Right now, we’re finalizing the work we are going to be doing with HHPR,” Hoffman said. “Those guys will be doing the engineering on the project, and that’s at the final stages. … we’re just working on final editing.”

But taking long strides on the project past the 30-percent design phase will likely be difficult. Hurdles – namely money, Hoffman said – may arise. In addition, it’s unknown what the city’s priorities will be a year from now.

Still the couplet project expected to cost an unspecified, yet expectedly sizable, sum of money to construct: “It also costs a lot to even get there,” Hoffman said, referring to the current engineering work.

Although surveying and scanning went quickly, PDOT remains guarded about how expeditiously it will continue to move after the engineering phase.

“The speed at which the project moves forward really depends on the funding and the availability of federal dollars,” Hoffman said.