In a move to slow vehicle traffic on 1st Avenue, Sweet Home City Council members on Tuesday, May 13, agreed the city should place permanent speed bumps as “traffic calming devices” along that street between Highways 20 and 228.
In a report to the council prior to the unanimous vote by all seven council members, City Manager/Police Chief Jason Ogden said that the city had contracted with The Dyer Partnership civil engineering firm, which recommended
The city collected two weeks of traffic data between April 11 and April 25 of last year and determined that approximately 1,500 to 2,000 vehicles per day travel the approximately quarter-mile stretch of residential street between the highways.
Ogden noted that the traffic consisted of a mix of passenger and commercial vehicles, including large trucks as drivers treat it as “an arterial route.”
“Unintentionally, (1st Avenue) is functioning as a bypass for motorists to avoid the traffic signal (at the junction of the highways) and move from one highway to another,” Ogden said, adding that the street is “narrow,” ranging from 30 to 32 feet, curb to curb.
He noted that residents of 1st Avenue have “voiced consistent concerns” to the Police Department, City Council and Traffic Safety Committee for years about excessive speeds, high traffic volumes and other and driver behavior issues along their stretch of street, and the Police Department did a crash data analysis on incidents between January of 2019 and June of 2024 which, he said, revealed that there had been “multiple” vehicle collisions resulting in “injuries and substantial property damage” at the two highway intersections and mid-block.
He said the consultants had provided three options for slowing traffic, all involving some form of protruding installations designed to reduce vehicle speeds.
The first were speed humps or, in smaller form, speed bumps, which could be parabolic mounds of asphalt or other materials, such as rubber, that typically reduce speeds to approximately 15 to 20 mph over the hump and for a distance on each side of the bump.
Ogden said the consultants recommended spacing four of the three-inch humps 250 feet apart along the 1st Avenue stretch, across the full width of the street.
The consultants estimated the cost of materials for the speed humps/bumps at $8,400 for asphalt and $43,000 for rubber humps, which would be temporary and would likely be more expensive to install.
A second option was offset speed humps made of asphalt or modular rubber, which would be staggered alternatively in each lanes, which allows emergency vehicles to slalom through them when necessary.
The estimated cost for those would be $9,440 for asphalt and $44,880 for modular rubber, not counting installation.
The third option would be speed cushions, which are similar to speed bumps but instead of extending across the entire travel lane, they are spaced to accommodate the wheelbase of emergency vehicles. Emergency vehicles, which have wider wheelbases than normal passenger vehicles, can drive straight through the speed cushion zone without being affected by a vertical hump. However, he noted, commercial trucks, with wider wheelbases, could also avoid the pads.
“It’s not going to affect them at all,” Ogden said.
The estimated cost for three rubber speed cushions would be $44,880, while asphalt would cost $9,440, not counting labor.
Ogden said Dyer recommended the speed humps option which, he said, “offers the greatest effectiveness with the least anticipated drawbacks.”
He said the consultants recommended constructing temporary asphalt speed bumps, extending the full width of the street.
“This option will be much more cost-effective and reduce the construction timeline over the modular rubber humps,” Ogden said.
He said surface preparation of the existing roadway should include cleaning and a tack coat prior to the installation of the humps.
The cost estimates do not include final engineering and the labor and equipment necessary for installation. He and Public Works Director Greg Springman said city staff are not equipped to do the installation themselves.
“It would be the first time they’d ever done it and you have to get it right the first time,” Ogden said, adding that a “ballpark” final cost for Option 1, in asphalt, would be between $15,000 and $20,000.
Frank Gallagher, chair of the Traffic Safety Committee and a 1st Avenue resident himself, said Option 1 would probably be the best.
“It’s probably the lowest cost you’re going to have, short of putting up barricades and a ‘Closed Street’ sign,” he told council members.
Councilor Ken Bronson asked Gallagher what he would suggest, since he lives on the street.
“If I were to do it, to get the most value for my money, I would do asphalt speed humps, but I’d do it on a permanent basis – I would not do a temporary trial,,” Gallagher responded, adding that simply putting asphalt humps on the existing roadway would lead to the humps deteriorating and needing to be replaced.
latest addition to the Sweet Home Police Department.
“Dollars- and cents-wise, it makes sense to me, if it were coming out of my pocket, to have it done right the first time.”
Gallagher, who’s lived on 1st Avenue for 29 years, said he’s been working on the issue for 15 years.
He said of the “upwards of 2,000-a-day” vehicles that use the street, 85% observe the speed limit.
“It’s that 15% that cause all the problems – and commercial vehicles, which do not belong on that street,” Gallagher said.
He noted that “farmers, with their tractors and trailers and so on, and the contractors coming through with their big trailers and their construction equipment, if you have to slow down and then you go another 250 feet and you have to slow down again, makes for a long day if you have to do a lot of that.”
Councilor Angelita Sanchez said she thought the city could get a lower price on the asphalt than Dyer’s, but she said she was “100% for the asphalt.”
Councilor Aaron Hegge said he supported a permanent installation. He noted that the minutes from Nov. 15, 2014 council meeting include approval of a motion “to add speed bumps at that time.”
“So it’s been a long time coming and I think we should get it done.”
Other council members said they agreed and Coleman asked staff to bring a request for council action to the next meeting so they could vote on it.
In other action, the council:
- Unanimously approved a list of requests from the Oregon Jamboree for street closures, OLCC temporary sales license applications, public address permits, assistance from the Police and Public Works departments, permission to use Upper Sankey, Strawberry and Quarry parks for camping, and waiver of various city fees.Road closures include Kalmia past 14th Avenue, Ames Creek Road from Mountain View to 18th Avenue, and 18th Avenue north to the bus garage (except for local traffic), and a “hard closure” of 18th Avenue from the bus garage to Long Street.Closures will begin roughly four days prior to the Aug. 1-3 event. The 33rd Jamboree will include 26 camp areas containing roughly 2,100 camp sites.
- Observed as new police officer Tylier Mendenhall was sworn in by Ogden.
- Approved a proclamation of May as Mental Health Awareness Month.
- Held a third reading and voted unanimously to adopt the 2025 Transportation System Plan, which will be an amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan and replaces all prior TSPs.
- Held a third reading and voted unanimously to adopt the North Sweet Home Area Plan as an amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan and its Transportation System Plan. The North Sweet Home plan is a long-term planning document that guides future development of, investment in, and identifies needs in that area, which includes the Old Mill Property and Quarry Park and extends east to Wiley Creek between the Albany & Eastern railroad tracks and the South Santiam River.
- Held a second reading and voted 5-2, with Sanchez and Dylan Richards opposing, to move a proposed ordinance regulating camping within the city limits to a third reading. State law requires the city to “develop a policy that recognizes the social nature of the problem of homeless individuals camping on public property.” Although the city has opened the Family Assistance and Resource Center Group (FAC) facility on 24th Avenue, and has maintained an area next to the Police Station where those who have been excluded from or refuse to utilize the FAC site may camp at night, which are strictly supervised and have set hours, the ordinance is necessary to bring city policy into compliance with state law. The ordinance was introduced March 11, but was tabled pending review by the city’s insurer. A first reading was held April 22.
- Heard a report from Springman on the city’s water system. He said that, when refilling the city’s reservoirs some older pipes near Foster Lake and in the Avenues started producing water with “color” due to rust in the water lines which, he said, are 80 years old in certain areas of the city.