Work continues on the five-mile stretch of Division St.

Posted Nov. 1, 2021

By Nellie Shevtsov

Staff Reporter

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is in the process of upgrading a five-mile stretch of Southeast Division Street, adding protected bike lanes, street lighting, and removing bulky on-street parking, in order to reduce injuries and deaths.

PBOT has been upgrading the five-mile stretch of Southeast Division Street for several months. The project extends from Southeast 80th to 174th avenues along the Centennial and Mill Park neighborhoods. PBOT hopes to complete the project by 2022.

"Division Street is a workhorse for Portlanders," a PBOT announcement stated. "It connects communities, cultural centers and two of the state's most populous urban centers."

Division St. is Portland’s second most dangerous street for cyclists, with 22 deaths and 107 injuries this past decade. To reduce the injuries and deaths, PBOT will install 10 new pedestrian crossings and more street lights in the Division Midway area and Jade District (Southeast 122nd to 130th avenues.) The raised median is expected to reduce left-turn crashes by creating limited “turn pockets” spaced every quarter to one-third mile at both signalized and unsignalized intersections.

"A driver who wants to access a business on the left side of the street will continue to a marked left turn, and then double back to the business," PBOT said.

The currently unprotected bike lanes will become buffer strips, which in many areas will include a raised concrete separator with bollards, which are short posts used to divert traffic from an area or road.

"Where we cannot have vertical protection (e.g. approaching driveways), the buffer will include hatch striping," a PBOT spokeswoman stated to The Oregonian.

This project includes “pockets” of on-street parking, but previous parking will be removed. The street upgrade also includes more street trees, with approximately 20 to be planted in the center median. More cannot be planted due to problems with water and sewage pipes underneath the road. Approximately 200 more trees will be planted on adjacent roads.

East of Interstate 205, Division carries an average of 40,000 cars and trucks per day, while the closer-in portion of the street averages about 22,000 vehicle trips a day. The city operates speed cameras on Division near 148th Avenue, and lowered the speed limit in 2017 to 30 MPH. PBOT hopes to complete the project in 2022. Progress has already been made by installing speed cameras, lowering road speeds, and creating turn pockets at every intersection, making Division safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists.