Dear K'Tesh,

Thank you for your time in contacting the city. As for the existing low catch basins on Boones Ferry Road neither I nor others here in the city have direct knowledge of why they are below asphalt grade; I would surmise that the road was overlaid at one time and the pavement dipped to match the existing elevation of the catch basins. This year we do have some extra funds in our 2012 street maintenance budget and I have requested staff to expand the contract so that these catch basins will either be raised to street grade or, preferably, curb inlets be installed instead of the catch basins. The curb inlet solution would be dependent on if there are conflicting utilities behind face-of-curb or not.

In the short term there appears to be thermoplastic striping on the road as a warning in front of at least one of the catch basins, however it is not a significantly different color than the asphalt. I have requested our Public Works department to either clean or repair the thermoplastic striping and add reflectors to mitigate the problem prior to our ability to repair the problem.

I am not sure to whom your friend Joe has spoken to in the past, but the current city staff in engineering and legal is not aware of any previous contact on the catch basin issue on Boones Ferry Road.

As for your travel on Wilsonville Road the pedestrian and bike route through the underpass area has been on the north side for the past several months (please note that it is scheduled to be switched from the north side to the south side late next month). The south side is considered to be an active construction zone and should not be traversed by pedestrians or cyclists. ODOT is in control of the construction of this project and I have cc’d them with my response to see if additional signage is perhaps necessary.

You last photo shows the asphalt at a different elevation form the gutter. ODOT standards do not allow the top lift of asphalt to be installed between October 1 and March 14, plus the desire is to complete all trenching, curb and gutter work first, installing the bottom lifts of asphalt and holding off on the final lift of paving until all other work has been completed thereby creating a clean, smooth top lift of asphalt for riding or driving upon. The top lift of asphalt is expected to be installed this June.

Once again thank you and please let me know if additional questions arise.

Respectfully,
Steve R. Adams, P.E.
Interim City Engineer
City of Wilsonville