TriMet PMLR

Minimizes transit delay, increases ridership, and improves safety.

Quick Facts

  • Seven mile MAX Orange line connects Milwaukie to Portland’s South Waterfront District and downtown Portland

  • Alignment crosses the Willamette River on the new Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People, which carries light rail trains, the streetcar, buses, bicycles, and pedestrians

  • Most of alignment is along an active Union Pacific freight corridor, which includes the only at-grade crossing of a light rail system and a heavy-rail line in the Pacific Northwest

  • Following a public vote against the LRT extension to Milwaukie, DKS assisted in the critical task of building public consensus by performing transportation analyses on the alignment and operations. Our fact-based approach was successful in obtaining public buy-in and moving forward with each phase of the South Corridor project: I-205, Transit Mall and PMLR

Results

  • Built public and agency consensus to successfully advance this project

  • Creates a safe multimodal corridor in spite of complex traffic engineering, circulation, and access issues and the heavy rail interface

  • Minimizes cut-through traffic and parking infiltration in neighborhoods

  • Improves light rail operations, travel times, and reliability while reducing impacts on autos, buses, bicycles, parking, pedestrians and businesses

  • Increases transit ridership by creating an innovative design that ensures safety and integrates pedestrians, bicycles, and the streetcar

  • Minimizes transit delay, increases ridership and improves safety

Our Work

  • Led transportation engineering services from concept planning through to environmental approvals, design and operational implementation

  • Performed alternative analyses by integrating advanced traffic analysis tools (Visum, EMME/2, Synchro, Vissim, SimTraffic, ArcView and aaSidra) to guide the decision process and build public consensus

  • Developed consolidated design of three at-grade crossings into one at-grade crossing at the 8th Ave., Division St., and Division Pl. intersection

  • Developed grade crossing applications, including quiet zone applications at 12 locations

  • Performed specialized traffic engineering analyses for bus access along dedicated trackway and intersection operations

  • Performed detailed traffic operational assessment

  • Designed dedicated bicycle signals and bicycle detection

  • Designed traffic signal phasing, lighting, signing, striping, and channelization to improve operations and safety

  • Designed interconnect plans to communicate between light rail and traffic signal systems

Jim [Peters] is a very talented engineer at DKS who’s been working on an advisory bike lane (ABL) among other design services for the Portland Milwaukie LRT project.

—Roger Geller, City of Portland

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