Work is beginning on an $8.8 million project to build sidewalks on the west side of 10th Street between E Street and Pocahontas Road, and to reconfigure the intersection of 10th and Pocahontas.

The Oregon Department of Transportation, which is paying for the work, mainly through a 2017 state transportation bill, hired Moreno & Nelson Construction of Walla Walla, Washington, as contractor.

There are no traffic effects now, according to ODOT. For the next couple weeks workers will be surveying, clearing road shoulders and removing some existing sidewalks that will be replaced.

Workers will realign the intersection of 10th Street and Pocahontas Road/Hughes Lane, near the north city limits, to make for easier turning angles for trucks.

The streets do not intersect at 90-degree angles.

ODOT officials considered multiple options for the intersection, including building a roundabout and installing a traffic signal.

Although a roundabout “would address the safety concerns, it would create a large impact to the adjacent landowners,” according to an ODOT summary of the project, the agency decided a roundabout was not feasible.

As for a traffic signal, according to ODOT, the number of crashes at the intersection did not meet minimum requirements, under the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, to justify a traffic signal.

According to ODOT, there have been 19 reported crashes at the intersection over the past decade, 10

of which resulted in “moderate” injuries and two involving “minor” injuries.

During a safety study in June 2022, a remote camera recorded what ODOT described as 88 “near-miss” incidents at the intersection in 24 hours.

According to ODOT, installing a signal at the intersection could lead to “significant increases in the frequency of collisions, especially rear-end collisions,” as well as “excessive delays, a higher number of motorists ignoring traffic signals and increased use of side roads as drivers attempt to avoid the traffic control signals.”

On 10th Street itself, ODOT will not be changing the lane configuration, which has two lanes in each direction and no center turn lane.

In addition to building new sidewalks and replacing broken sidewalks on the west side of 10th Street, workers will build new ADA-compliant curb ramps.

ODOT’s contractors did the same type of work at dozens of intersections elsewhere in the city over the past two years.

ODOT initially considered building sidewalks on the east side of 10th Street, but rising construction costs made that impossible during the current project.

At the 10th/Pocahontas/Hughes intersection, in addition to realigning the intersection, workers will paint bike lines (there will not be physical barriers) and build pedestrian “islands” in the intersection.

That will reduce the distance pedestrians have to walk to cross 10th Street.

If in the future the intersection meets standards for a traffic signal, the islands, which typically are built at signalled intersections, would already be in place, according to ODOT.