Roosevelt
Blvd.is a better connector between Beltline and 99, it
serves northwest Eugene neighborhoods better than WEP could. Some
local traffic would use Roosevelt, regional through traffic would bypass
on Belt Line.
transfer WEP money to finish Beltline,
fix Roosevelt / 99 intersection two options for completing Beltline: (1) if Peak Oil is here,
(2) if Peak Oil is not yet here. The larger option could convert
Beltline to an interstate highway - perhaps I-605?
transfer ODOT / City lands for WEP to BLM's
West Eugene Wetlands Project
new roads:
First - 99 - Second Connector, Barger Road Extended & Trainsong
Connector (to NW Expressway)
fix West
11th intersections (would cost about $2 million, the cost
to complete WEP study), other road repairs
bicycle paths and lanes, pedestrian safety enhanced by road test for
drivers license renewals
land use shifts to coordinate transit and development, mixed use centers,
co-housing neighborhoods
"Saving Oil in a Hurry" - practical steps
toward coping with sudden energy shortages, road safety, speed limits
upgrade Amtrak to enable high speed trains to Seattle
Second and Garfield: ideal location for Eugene's
new hospital (central
& accessible)
Peak Oil and climate change are "new circumstances" that requires reopening
the NEPA process
City of Eugene Adopted Growth Management Policies
violated by WEP
Endangered
Species Act: a "license to kill" - Road Kill: Fender's
Blue Butterfly and Car Fenders
controlled burning for wet prairie restoration incompatible with WEP
environmental
justice: WEP traffic dumped onto 6th and 7th would severely impact
Whiteaker neighborhood
plants of the West Eugene Wetlands - photos by Linda Swisher
Endangered
Species Act: a "license to kill" - Road Kill: Fender's
Blue Butterfly and Car Fenders
controlled burning for wet prairie restoration incompatible with WEP
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglass
- a letter that protected a
park from a parkway
sand
and gravel - impacts of an elevated WEP in the wetlands
Modified Project - 1997 Supplemental Draft Environmental
Impact Statement
"Alternative A Mitigated" - Summer 2003 version
freeway on ramp and off ramp at 6th / 7th Avenues - Spring 2005 version
Couplet Alternative - October 2005 version
1959 plan for "Roosevelt
Freeway" (original WEP), Skinner Butte Freeway
1967 plan for Roosevelt Freeway,
Beltline through South Hills / ridgeline
1978 plan for "6th
/ 7th Freeway" (possible WEP to I-105 connector -- relatively
easy to construct, but it would be very expensive because there are
lots of businesses in the path, essentially everything in between 6th
and 7th)
1978 plan for Whiteaker
Bypass (alternate WEP to I-105 connector -- somewhat more difficult
to construct than the 6th / 7th Freeway, but fewer business displacements.
It would have more residential impacts, and would be intensely controversial,
should it be formally proposed as the WEP's Eastern Terminus)
In a
category by itself: confused opponents craft worse WEP proposal
Crandall - Arambula
report: a new route for the WEP unveiled by a few confused
WEP opponents in September 2002.
This option would cost more, pave more wetlands than
ODOT's version, would threatens farm and rural neighborhoods, and
even included the first segment of a potential Eugene Outer Beltline
(the alleged bus-only expressway from Royal Avenue to the Eugene airport).
ODOT wants about 6 miles of expressway, the C&A report proposed
10 1/2 miles. There was not any public input to the design of this
WEP version (even most diehard WEP opponents were excluded from this
process). It received no public support, and it was quietly dropped
in embarrassment.
WEP proponents continue to reference this report in support of their
claim that the environmentalists support the idea of an expressway,
even though nearly all WEP opponents were aghast at this poorly thought
through disaster. The architects who drew the plans for this nutty
idea were also working to "greenwash" the relocation of
Peace Health hospital to the McKenzie River floodplain while crafting
a new, worse option for the WEP.
ODOT
WEP map - October 2005
The primary map on the ODOT website is highly misleading.
It does not show the large expanse of parklands / 4(f) "resources"
that would be decimated by the Porkway.
It does not show the fact that the "new" route of the
WEP would have four intersections (east bound) between Seneca and
Highway 99. That is nearly identical to the "5th / 7th Couplet
Alternative" rejected in 1985 as unpopular and unworkable.
It does not show the tight S-curve in the newest version of the
WEP just east of Seneca, and has several other mistakes in the exact
shape of the highway. Is ODOT's map maker being deliberately sloppy
in the "stick figure" version offered to the public?
It does not show the severing of Roosevelt from Beltline that is
contemplated (or rejected)
It does not show the differences between at grade and grade separated
connections (Beltline interchange).
It doesn't show the severing of Highway 126 west of the UGB.
Surely the nearly $2 million that was injected into the latest round
of this "study" can produce a higher quality map than http://egov.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION2/WEP_map1005.JPG
Since we now cannot use that money to fix the intersections on West
11th, it would be nice to at least post a decent map that shows Amazon
Creek, the BLM (and other public) lands, all of the new intersections
proposed for the project, and also has the correct shape of the project.
After receiving several complains from WETLANDS about the low
quality of the map on the ODOT website, in January 2006 ODOT posted
several high quality maps to the site that are much more accurate and
have fewer omissions.
