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Nothing reminds Sisters residents of the city's traffic woes more vividly than
a big-event weekend. Cascade Street turns into a log jam, making it next to
impossible to cross between the north and south sides of town, and making a
left turn anywhere requires almost infinite patience.
Big events emphasize these problems, but conditions can get rough on any summer
weekend.
According to City Planner Neil Thompson, there's probably not much Sisters can
do about the traffic on Highway 20 through town. The Oregon Department of
Transportation has said there is no money to build a bypass and Sisters
rejected a one-way couplet.
But Sisters area residents may soon be able to find a way around the Cascade
Street gridlock on what Thompson calls "a kind of local bypass."
The route of the "by-pass" would be from a turnoff on Highway 20 just east of
the Three Winds Shopping Center, across the National Forest-managed triangle to
the McKenzie Highway and on across the northeast corner of Pine Meadow Ranch
along a new extension of Hood Street.
The Forest Service will develop an access road from Highway 20 to its planned
East Portal kiosk on the triangle of land at the junction of Highway 20 and the
McKenzie Highway.
According to Mike Hernandez of the Sisters Ranger District, the portal project
will probably have to be conducted in phases. The project will be constructed
with Federal Highways Department money and the Forest Service hasn't been told
yet what the final allocation will be. Hernandez said that costs for the
project may be greater than the money available.
If the job is undertaken in phases, Phase I will provide a deceleration lane on
eastbound Highway 20, a 90-degree turn-off and a two-lane road partway across
the triangle. The road would then be completed in Phase II of the project to
connect Highway 20 and 242.
At the same time, Pine Meadow Ranch Development Co. plans to extend Hood Street
through the northeast corner of the ranch property and link up in a 90-degree
intersection with the McKenzie Highway.
According to Hernandez and Steve McGhehey of PMR Development Co., if everything
goes smoothly, PMR will contract to complete the connection between Highway 20
and the McKenzie Highway. The whole connection could be completed as early as
mid-1997.
As McGhehey described it, the route would allow someone coming to town from
Black Butte Ranch to pick up their mail to dodge around the downtown core and
get to the Post Office without encountering Cascade Street traffic.
The route conjures images of a potential one-way couplet, but planners say the
90-degree intersections make that impossible.
"It won't work as a couplet," Thompson said.
Although he believes "a couplet is a good solution to our problem," Thompson
said the Sisters transportation plan has moved away from that possibility.
Thompson noted that as traffic volume increases, the turn-off from Highway 20
across the triangle will have to be regulated.
"We're setting ourselves up for the inevitability of a traffic light," Thompson
said.
A similar "local bypass" is envisioned for the north side of town.
Thompson said that a route from Highway 20 to Camp Polk Road is part of the
transportation plan, although it probably won't become a reality for at least
three years.
That route would go through the Sisters Industrial Park and across the Barclay
Ranch. Thompson said that development of such a road will be a condition for
development of the Barclay Ranch property.
