Monroe Street Greenway

Project Status

In Progress

Budget

$11 Million - $8,993,780 funded (CIP, Transportation SDC Funds, Urban Renewal, and ODOT)

Project Type

Capital Project

Contact

Tanya Battye, PE
Civil Engineer
503.786.7541
battyet@milwaukieoregon.gov

Project Details

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As an important east-west route across Milwaukie, Monroe Street connects several neighborhoods and downtown Milwaukie, and has been identified in the city’s Transportation System Plan (TSP) as a "neighborhood greenway." Neighborhood greenways are low-volume, low-speed routes that provide safe, quiet routes for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. Neighborhood greenways often include improvements that reduce vehicle speeds (for example, with curb extensions or mini traffic circles), which makes them safer and more inviting for neighbors, walkers, and bikers, while also reducing cut-through traffic from outside the neighborhood.

The Monroe Street Greenway will run from the Trolly Trail at Milwaukie Bay Park through downtown Milwaukie and all the way to the multi-use paths constructed along Linwood Ave. Separately, Clackamas County will extend the Linwood multi-use paths to the Springwater Corridor and is undertaking design and construction of the Monroe Street Greenway from Linwood Avenue to Fuller Road (construction in 2024-25). You can learn more about the Clackamas County extension here.

Within Milwaukie city limits, the project is divided into three segments:

The Downtown Segment runs from 21^st Avenue to 29^th Avenue. It runs from downtown, across the light rail and ends at 29^th Avenue. Milwaukie is currently looking into funding this segment.
The Central Segment runs from 29^th Avenue to 34^th Avenue. It crosses Highway-224 and turns onto Campbell Street to use the Oak Street railroad crossing. Milwaukie signed an agreement with ODOT to contribute $1.55 Million dollars (Statewide Transportation Improvement Program: STIP) to the construction of this segment. This segment is scheduled to be completed in 2025-2026.
The East Segment runs from 34^th Avenue to Linwood Avenue. It will run along the Seven Acre Apartments and turn onto 37^th Avenue and Washington Street for a safer route with fewer cars and pass Homewood Park and Wichita Park on the way to the edge of the city on Linwood Avenue. The Seven Acre Apartments completed construction in 2023. The city worked with ODOT and Metro to supply approximately $700,000 and $3.15 Million dollars (Regional Flexible Funding Allocation: RFFA), respectively, to this segment. This segment is in the dsign phase and is scheduled to be constructed in 2025-2026.

Concept Plan

In the mid 2010’s, the city secured a State grant to create the Concept Plan that defines Neighborhood Greenway improvements along Monroe Street from 21st Avenue to Linwood Avenue (Milwaukie's eastern boundary). The concept plan was adopted by City Council on February 6, 2018 by Resolution 8-2018.

The Traffic Analysis Report for the Monroe Street Neighborhood Greenway is available in the Downloads section below.

Alerts & Updates

Please reference below for the project map.

Update (10.31.2024): Follow up information is now available for the September 12, 2024 Open House. PDFs are at the bottom of this page or just link to them here:

Update (8.30.2024):

Washington-Monroe Street Greenway Open House - Thursday, September 12, 2024 (5-7 p.m.) at Wichita Park, 5908 SE Monroe St.
- Stop by to ask questions, learn more about the project, give your feedback, and partake in light refreshments. Project staff will share a map of the current designs and a preliminary construction schedule.
- The city is improving safety along a 1.25 mile stretch along Washington St., Garrett St. and Monroe St. This is called the “East Segment” of the longer Monroe Street Greenway. The open house will concentrate on this segment.
- Check out the Washington-Monroe Street Greenway Factsheet (September 2024).
- Not able to attend the open house, have more to share about the current designs, or want to read through some FAQs? Public comments will be collected until Friday, September 20, 2024 on Engage Milwaukie.

Update (3.7.2024):
Thank you all for the wonderful turnout for the Multi-Project Open House: Hwy 224, Monroe Street Greenway, TSP Update & Kellogg Creek! We collected some great feedback and will do our best to incorporate what we can. Please look over the Public Comments received in the documents below and reach out if you have any questions or if there is anything else you would like us to know as we continue through the design process.

Update (2.14.2024): Full Monroe Greenway: Join us for a multi-project Open House on Feb. 29 between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. on the 3rd floor of City Hall!
ODOT and Milwaukie staff will be there to share early design plans and discuss the next steps for these projects:
•   ODOT's OR 224: SE 17th Avenue to Rusk Rd Improvements
•   Milwaukie’s Monroe Street Greenway
•   Milwaukie Transportation System Plan Update

Update (2.14.2024): East Segment: CONSOR has been contracted to design the Monroe Greenway from 37th Avenue to Linwood Avenue. We have had our kick-off meeting and they have sent their surveyors out to assess current conditions. Wave to the drones!
Update (7.3.2023): East Segment: The city has an agreement with the developer of the Seven Acre Apartments to construct the segment of the Greenway along the south side of Monroe Street and west side of 37th Avenue. From 37th Avenue to Linwood Avenue, the City has signed an agreement with ODOT for a cooperative design and construction. CONSOR Engineers, LLC has been selected to design the greenway from 37th Avenue to Linwood Avenue and construction is anticipated to occur in 2025-2026.

Update (5.18.2022): The overall Monroe Street Greenway project has been split into several segments (see 2023 Segment Map, link below), of which three segments will be moving forward at varying times.

Downtown Segment is unfunded and is currently on hold.
Central Segment: ODOT is overseeing reconstruction of the intersection at Monroe Avenue and Highway-224. Construction is anticipated to occur in late 2023 or 2024. The city will oversee work on either side of this intersection; design and construction are anticipated to start shortly after ODOT completes their work. Milwaukie is in the process of setting up an agreement with ODOT to fund $1.55M of the construction cost in this area.
East Segment: The city has an agreement with the developer of the Seven Acre Apartments to construct the segment of the Greenway along the south side of Monroe Street and west side of 37th Avenue. The City has signed an agreement with ODOT for this project to be primarily run by ODOT but with City input into design and construction. Design is anticipated to start in mid to late 2023, with construction anticipated to occur in 2025-2026.

Update (7.3.2020): The City has been awarded the full RFFA (Regional Flexible Fund Allocation) requested amount of $3.86 Million from Metro to go towards construction of the Monroe Street Greenway! We are in the process of acquiring a consultant to prepare complete environmental prospectus documents required by ODOT and the Federal Highway Administration. This step is necessary to determine the level of environmental documentation required by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The next steps include entering into an Inter-Governmental Agreement with ODOT to establish the project scope and responsibilities of all partnering agencies.

Update (9.23.2019): Metro is currently evaluating and performing a risk analysis for the submitted applications for projects pursuing funding from the 2022-2024 RFFA grant.

Voice your support for the Monroe Street Greenway by taking Metro's survey and sharing your thoughts about the project. The last day to take the survey is Oct. 7, 2019. To take the survey, visit www.surveymonkey.com/r/43million

Metro Council is opening up time for the public to testify for projects at the Metro Council on Thursday, September 26 at Metro Council Chambers, 600 NE Grand Ave, Portland, OR 97232, at 5:00 pm. Supporters of the Greenway are encouraged to attend and provide, support, thoughts, and comments on the project.

Project selection process:

Technical evaluation and risk assessment: August 2019
Public comment: September 2019
County coordinating committee/City of Portland recommendations: November 2019
TPAC/JPACT discussion and action: December 2019
Metro Council action: January 2020

Update (7.29.2019): On June 27th, 2019 the city gave a presentation to PSAC (Public Safety Advisory Committee) to update the committee on the status of the Monroe Street Greenway project. A copy of the PowerPoint slides are in the Supporting Documents section, below. In the presentation slides, there is information on the project background/history, greenway route decisions, projected greenway features, and general expected construction timelines based on funding allocations.

The project has been handed over from the planning stage to the engineering phase for funding acquisition, design development, and construction. The city is pursuing several funding sources, including a grant application that was submitted in June for Metro's RFFA (Regional Flex Fund Allocation) grant. The city will know if the Monroe Street Greenway will be awarded the grant in January 2020. Preliminary design development is expected to begin in 2020-2021.

Update (12.4.2018): The city has funded a project to build sidewalks for safer pedestrian crossings on Linwood Avenue between Harmony Road and Monroe Street that will begin construction in 2021. Serious collisions have occurred at the intersection of Monroe and Linwood and have prompted staff to design and install a temporary safety project on a more aggressive timeline. Almost half of the 37 reported crashes at Monroe and Linwood since 2013 are linked to people crossing Linwood on Monroe, or turning left. The Monroe Street Neighborhood Greenway Plan recommended installation of a traffic diverter at this location to prevent cross traffic and restrict turns to right in and right out only. The city is working with Clackamas County to design a temporary version of this diverter for installation in December.

While this change in traffic circulation is significant and will take some getting used to, city staff believe it is necessary to address the immediate safety needs at this location. For more information about the project, or to speak with staff to learn more, visit milwaukiesafe.org.

Update: A traffic analysis was completed by DKS in March 2018 with a primary focus on lowering daily volume of vehicles on Monroe Street. The analysis is intended to review the concept plans to verify which elements to provide for Monroe Street to function most effectively as a neighborhood greenway and active transportation connection. The findings of the traffic analysis generally support the recommendations from the city and county concept plans, but with added findings for additional traffic signals.