Gearhart Facility Plan schedule

Crashes are common. Crossing is dangerous. And while the highway is used by the Oregon Coast Bike Route and the Oregon Coast Trail, there are no safe walking paths or bike lanes.

An Oregon Department of Transportation plan confirms what drivers already know: U.S. Highway 101 from Pacific Way in Gearhart north is dangerous.

The stretch “is notorious for speeding,” state planners write. “Local law enforcement routinely clock drivers exceeding the speed limit by 20 mph or more.”

A Highway 101 project update delivered to the city this month seeks public feedback on roadway improvements, a multiyear process to culminate with delivery of a final facility plan at the end of 2022.

“The Highway 101 safety plan that ODOT is fully funding is underway,” Carole Connell, the city planner, said at last week’s joint meeting of the Planning Commission and City Council. “We had a stakeholders’ advisory committee meeting of property owners, of people who live on the highway, people who use the highway for biking and all kinds of uses. There’s been some very good feedback.”

In March 2020, Kenneth Shonkwiler, ODOT’s senior northwest region planner, appeared before the City Council to discuss plan priorities and 75 potential projects. The work could include narrowing the highway from four lanes to three, sidewalks, bike lanes, better, more visible crossings and fixes for flooding and stormwater drainage issues.

Facility plans are more detailed than transportation system plans, and this particular project is solely focused on Highway 101 in Gearhart, Shonkwiler said.

“The facility plan will use goals and project ideas from the city of Gearhart TSP 2017 to develop more detailed projects that have ODOT and community support,” he said. “The end product will provide ODOT and the city with adequate information to pursue infrastructure projects.”

Mayor Paulina Cockrum said the plan serves as a “jumping-off point.”

“That document outlines increasing issues with speeding, traffic accidents, left-turn lanes, and the ability for people particularly on the east side of the highway to cross the highway anywhere except Pacific Way — and even Pacific Way is suboptimal in terms of ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards,” she said. “Those are some of the many reasons it was such a pertinent part of the transportation plan.”

The Department of Transportation is entering the “feedback on draft goals and objectives,” before delivery of a draft and final facility plan in winter 2022.

“This will make a difference in the final plan, how much people are in agreement with what they put out as a proposal, such as reducing the speed on 101, or reducing to three lanes with a center turn lane,” Cockrum said.

As for funding, Shonkwiler said, the project is a planning-level project, which means there is not construction funding at this time. But by the end, the state and the city will have a better understanding of infrastructure needs and relative cost. This plan then assists in pursuing state or federally funded programs for construction.

“We really just began the project and will have a better idea once we start developing solutions,” he said.

Community members can go https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=Gearhart-Facility-Plan to read more about the goals of the project.