So, good news, first: The estimated $2.1 million improvement project on South Ivy Street that the city and county agreed to early last year is still moving forward. The project will include the addition of sidewalks, ADA ramps, a bicycle lane and a new traffic signal at the intersection with Township Road near Bethany Church.
The project will also include resurfacing of South Ivy between Highway 99E and Lee Elementary School — a section of roadway that is currently under county jurisdiction.
What’s the bad news? As initially reported, the project wouldn’t be starting in 2019 or 2020. But, as we recently learned, it’s not happening next year, either.
“It is anticipated that the Ivy improvements will be constructed in the summer and fall of 2022,” said Joel Howie, civil engineering supervisor for the Clackamas County Department of Transportation and Development. “The project team is now getting into the preliminary design details of the project and expecting to have a 30 percent design in the next couple of months.”
Howie added that he anticipates a public meeting being held to discuss the project early this summer, though the time and location have not yet been determined.
Concerns bubbled over recently about the lack of safe crosswalks and sidewalks along South Ivy, which is lined with residential neighborhoods and is a hub of pedestrian traffic surrounding Lee Elementary School, the Canby Adult Center and Canby Swim Center.
In the mornings and afternoons, teens are often seen crossing Ivy closer to Highway 99E, on their way to Canby High School or, headed the other way, toward Baker Prairie Middle School.
In January of last year, Mayor Brian Hodson estimated that this is a project the city has been working on since 2012, though they were limited in how much they could do while the road was under county jurisdiction. Per the earlier agreement, the city will take over ownership and maintenance of this portion of South Ivy once construction is complete.
