Construction Equipment Guide
470 Maryland Drive
Fort Washington, PA 19034
800-523-2200
Tue May 16, 2023 - West Edition #11
Between North Albany and Corvallis, U.S. 20 is a rural two-lane highway with heavy commuter traffic of more than 18,000 vehicles per day. In addition to motorists, many bicyclists use this corridor.
This portion of the highway has a high volume of crashes and poor visibility for travelers turning on and off U.S. 20. In 2016, ODOT completed the U.S. 20 Highway Safety Study and recommended a variety of safety improvements along this corridor, some of which are being implemented as part of this project.
U.S. 20 at Granger Avenue and Independence Highway will be worked on by construction crews. Key issues that have sparked the need for upgrades include a high number of crashes from cars turning onto the highway, increased traffic reducing the number of acceptable gaps/breaks in traffic for turning, limited sight distance at county road intersections due to right turning vehicle queues and limited distance between highway and railroad.
Crews will correct these issues by executing the following:
Key issues in this area include vehicles heading westbound run off of the road at the outside edge of curve and rear end crashes when vehicles slow down to enter the nursery.
Improvements in this area include:
The second phase of construction for this project will work in the area of Conifer Boulevard to Merloy Avenue. Key issues for this portion of the project are rear end and turning crashes due to slowing vehicles and limited gaps and a large number of highway accesses/driveways.
Proposed improvements include: