It was just a year ago when the 6th Street Bike Blvd was completed, landscape included. But for one of those intersections life has been brutal. Standing with the head of Traffic Engineering and the engineer for the Bike Blvd this week here is the re-cap. The traffic circle was run over – that means across – SIX times. The first time the truck ran over the circle and proceeded to total two cars, and when that wasn’t enough turned his truck and ran over the traffic circle again. And then the traffic circle was driven over another four times. And there is more – there was a city-wide theft of the copper coupling for the irrigation, so now we have custom wire boxes to secure this item.

No matter how tough and resistant the landscape had been – it was no match for these incursions. The Traffic Engineering department, along with Parks, Recreation and Marine (that manages the circles city-wide, at this point) have reached out to Rose Park for input on safety and landscaping next steps. RPNA is now reaching out to those that participated in the initial landscaping workshops for their input.

Some have asked why the Temple circle did not have a tree. A great question. A tree would have been no match for the run-overs. However, the reason there was no tree was that during the landscape design workshops Rose Park was told that  underground utilities precluded a tree  at Temple and Orizaba.  During the installation last fall these utility boxes were off-set and it appears we can entertain a discussion of a tree.

We’ll keep the neighborhood in the loop via this weekly email. If you have ideas please send to info@rpna.org. But do so quickly we were given a short turn around to provide ideas for the re-installation of the landscape at Temple and 6th. A thanks to Eric Widstrand and Steve Tweed from Traffic Engineering and Michelle Mowery, Mobility Coordinator for their efforts to engage Rose Park.

[Note: these gif images are for inspiration!)