Chemeketa: 52nd Avenue Project, Phase 2.2
Hi everyone-
Well, after a long hiatus, Tarkusian Cities is back. I want to thank all of my readers for their patience and support, and the thoughtful comments and encouragement several of you left in response to my last "wall of text" about the future of TC. I have decided to "go with the grain" and basically take advantage of the natural "spurt-and-hiatus" flow of things here.
While RL is a little less hectic, as is the case right now, I'm going to try to squeeze in a rapid-fire "spurt" of updates before things flare up again. What this means is that I'll be updating things here somewhat regularly during the holidays, until early January, mostly focusing on construction projects in North Chemeketa. Then Tarkusian Cities will be on a planned hiatus, probably until April, though you might see bits of new stuff in "Show Us Your Interchanges" and the like as time permits in between then.
The first of these "rapid-fire" updates will, at long last, resume the 52nd Avenue NE widening project.
52nd Avenue NE Corridor Widening Project: Phase 2 Continued (Mosby to Scarlet)
In case anyone needs to refresh themselves with the lay of the land, here's the most recent full region transport map of Chemeketa. There's one item you won't yet see on here . . . the Scarlet Street NE extension south of 52nd Avenue.
As we left off last time, 52nd Avenue NE had been closed off just west of the Rankine Lane NE intersection, at Sorenson Creek, for bridge work seen underway here (facing east).
While the city has encouraged motorists to use 39th Ave NE or 71st Ave NE as detours, quite a few folks have instead opted for Eriksen Way NE, an east-west collector route just north of 52nd, and have successfully clogged it up--here's looking at the intersection of Eriksen and Rankine (facing east).
This is at Eriksen Way NE and Scarlet Street NE (facing east). As you can see, it's fairly clogged up as well . . . and because of the Scarlet Street extension south of 52nd, the city's already started making some preparations for a right-turn lane from Eriksen EB onto Scarlet SB. More improvements for Eriksen are planned, though the city has not yet identified funding for the project.
Bridge work continues (facing east). Sorenson Creek actually had to be re-routed slightly in order to accommodate the wider bridge. (Before anyone asks, those T21 trees are a personal "tweak" of jackxu's AVE-2 mod.)
Here's the "choke point" where the already widened section of 52nd narrows down, just west of Mosby Road NE (facing east).
Work on connecting the new bridge up to the eastern segment of 52nd (facing east). That intersection there is 52nd and Rankine. In order to minimize the environmental impact of having to slightly divert Sorenson Creek, a wetlands mitigation pond has been constructed at the southwest corner of the intersection.
And now the bridge is open (facing east).
The improved intersection at 52nd and Aldrin Way NE (facing east). The turn lanes are so new the city crews haven't even painted the arrows.
52nd and Scarlet post-construction (facing east).
52nd and Rankine post-construction (facing east). You might recognize this image--it's actually the NWM download promo shot.
And a related project--here's where the Scarlet Street extension currently ends, at Sorenson Creek (facing east). As you can see, however, some advanced planning when the subdivision south of the creek (accessed via 39th Ave NE) means there's already a road stub in place for the southern segment. We'll be looking at that soon, along with Phase 3 (of 3) of the 52nd Avenue NE Project (from Scarlet to Ashcroft), the Highway 15/39th Avenue interchange, and the extension of the Chemeketa Parkway.
Hope the new update was an enjoyable read for you--there will be more to come quite soon!
-Alex (Tarkus)
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