Rosstown Arteries at the Heart of Upgrading a Modern Salem

Are Salem streets ready for the traffic of the future?

Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - By the end of this decade, Salem OR is certain to be transformed. At the heart of the issue, however, is whether traffic impact will keep pace with the burgeoning urban sprawl.

We read the daily papers and we discern the following:

The huge 13-acre Boise Cascade site is being primed for redevelopment; Willamette University is adding a downtown building to its campus; The old McMahan site on Court St. has been razed for a new complex; Oregon State Hospital will be retrofitted for a new patient generation; Some three possible sites are being weighed for a new Willamette span.

With all this hustle and bustle of activity, traffic patterns are sure to increase. Are we truly ready? Can we brace ourselves to devote time and energy to help move crosstown traffic better in the process?

At the moment, only State Street and Market Street permit four-lane cars on the move.

Center Street is a dangerous bottleneck from 12th Street to Hawthorne Street. NE.

That can be widened for driver relief. So too can Sunnyview near the Fairgrounds, a spot of growing popularity. Grassy lots abound. Why wait until costs increase to consider paving a useful four-lane street for better crosstown flow?

And it is very viable to look down the road with Cordon Road! The City and Marion County can join forces and begin to map out a beltway to link up to ever-busy Interstate-5.

Unless crosstown arteries gain that needed upgrade, the heart of the city will choke breath by breath. Urban coronary? It's a fitting phrase if we augur a frustrating future.