Plans to make Foothill Road four lanes in certain spots

[Scrapper]

Seen on Facebook:

The City of Medford and Jackson County are making plans to make Foothill Road four lanes in certain spots to make it safer to travel.

http://www.kdrv.com/foothill-road-set-to-expand/

The City of Medford and Jackson County have made separate plans to make certain sections of Foothill Road four lanes with bigger shoulders and bike lanes.
Jackson County road official, Mike Kuntz, said they are aware of the dangers of the road and understand driver frustration.
“To the typical driver, it’s going to feel like a very narrow road very windy road. It’s just strait enough that it encourages people to go a pretty good speed. But it’s not straight enough to really be a fast driven road,” said Kuntz.
Breana Dowling travels the road frequently and said she would like to see improvements.
“It’d be nice to have two lanes on each side to cut down on the congestion,” Dowling said. “It’d make it a lot easier to drive out here.”
Since 2010, more than 60 accidents have been recorded on Foothill Road. The most recent wreck was on Sunday and a woman died at the hospital after the accident.

[tvguy]

Seen on Facebook:

The City of Medford and Jackson County are making plans to make Foothill Road four lanes in certain spots to make it safer to travel.

http://www.kdrv.com/foothill-road-set-to-expand/

The City of Medford and Jackson County have made separate plans to make certain sections of Foothill Road four lanes with bigger shoulders and bike lanes.
Jackson County road official, Mike Kuntz, said they are aware of the dangers of the road and understand driver frustration.
“To the typical driver, it’s going to feel like a very narrow road very windy road. It’s just strait enough that it encourages people to go a pretty good speed. But it’s not straight enough to really be a fast driven road,” said Kuntz.
Breana Dowling travels the road frequently and said she would like to see improvements.
“It’d be nice to have two lanes on each side to cut down on the congestion,” Dowling said. “It’d make it a lot easier to drive out here.”
Since 2010, more than 60 accidents have been recorded on Foothill Road. The most recent wreck was on Sunday and a woman died at the hospital after the accident.

I drive it a lot. The biggest problem I have is not being able to pass slow pokes. It's a freaking windy road in a couple of spots. If people can't steer a car on that road with out wrecking then they shouldn't be in a car.
Having said that I'm glad they will make it safer for people with poor driving skills.

[bbqboy]

Needs bike lanes

[Scrapper]

Needs bike lanes

The City of Medford and Jackson County have made separate plans to make certain sections of Foothill Road four lanes with bigger shoulders and bike lanes.

[Willie Krash]

They straighten roads out to benefit freight movement. The whole idea on the Fern Valley Interchange is to tie it to 140 on the east side of Medford. Never was admitted but you can see the work on foothills begin.

[Wonky]

They straighten roads out to benefit freight movement. The whole idea on the Fern Valley Interchange is to tie it to 140 on the east side of Medford. Never was admitted but you can see the work on foothills begin.

No Willie, there are other good reasons to straighten roads. See the recent news piece about the woman who died at Cocker Butte and Foothill the other day. That curve is an accident waiting to happen. And did.

And, freight movement is important in our modern world.

Unless of course one walks everywhere.

[Willie Krash]

They straighten roads out to benefit freight movement. The whole idea on the Fern Valley Interchange is to tie it to 140 on the east side of Medford. Never was admitted but you can see the work on foothills begin.

No Willie, there are other good reasons to straighten roads. See the recent news piece about the woman who died at Cocker Butte and Foothill the other day. That curve is an accident waiting to happen. And did.

And, freight movement is important in our modern world.

Unless of course one walks everywhere.

Wonky, there will be an MPO, PAC meeting at RVCOG Tuesday nigh 6:00pm. The public is invited.
Safety is always a primary concern too. The driver of these style projects are by and large for freight movement.
I didn't qualify it as "one of the reasons" they straighten roads out to benefit freight (only) as common sense suggest the reason are multifaceted.
At the end of day, freight is the driver. I have written about that before on these pages and why that is so.

Think about the Freight implication of Fern Valley linking to 140. That isn't for you and your car. That's a bonus, it's about freight*.
If it's bad now wait until the trucks hit it.

Now it one thinks about "why" this is so it quickly become apparent.

* and all the other benefits fall in place. Ever ask yourself why it has taken so long to fix it? It's the grand plan.

[Wonky]

They straighten roads out to benefit freight movement. The whole idea on the Fern Valley Interchange is to tie it to 140 on the east side of Medford. Never was admitted but you can see the work on foothills begin.

No Willie, there are other good reasons to straighten roads. See the recent news piece about the woman who died at Cocker Butte and Foothill the other day. That curve is an accident waiting to happen. And did.

And, freight movement is important in our modern world.

Unless of course one walks everywhere.

Wonky, there will be an MPO, PAC meeting at RVCOG Tuesday nigh 6:00pm. The public is invited.
Safety is always a primary concern too. The driver of these style projects are by and large for freight movement.
I didn't qualify it as "one of the reasons" they straighten roads out to benefit freight (only) as common sense suggest the reason are multifaceted.
At the end of day, freight is the driver. I have written about that before on these pages and why that is so.

Think about the Freight implication of Fern Valley linking to 140. That isn't for you and your car. That's a bonus, it's about freight*.
If it's bad now wait until the trucks hit it.

Now it one thinks about "why" this is so it quickly become apparent.

* and all the other benefits fall in place. Ever ask yourself why it has taken so long to fix it? It's the grand plan.

You win.
You always do.

[tvguy]

They spent a lot of time and money straightening out Blackwell rd where there used to be a sharp curve at the bottom of the hill.
Before they fixed that curve in 2012 (some called dead mans curve) there were three fatalities in the three years prior.
There's no reason for anyone to haul freight from Kirkland road to Gold hill with the freeway being right there.
That one was all about safety.

The plans to widen and straighten out the curves on foothill road are to come after Foothill rd is extended so that instead of dead ending at Corey rd it will go strait across to 140 and align with Atlantic Ave.
This will give (according to the county) a better access from Phoenix to Eagle Point. Only after this project will the curves on foothill be straightened out and it's allegedly all about safety.

But getting back to freight... I think this eventually be a good path for truckers going from I-5 at Phoenix to Klamath Falls.

BTW another major road project is to finish making Table Rock road wider all the way to Antelope. This road is considered to be one of the areas most dangerous roads.

[bbqboy]

Foothill is where the freeway should have gone originally.

[tvguy]

Foothill is where the freeway should have gone originally.

Yeah at one time. But someday I think there will be a bypass, North Phoenix to foothill to antelope, across 62 through part of Denman with a new road that goes over to the North Central point freeway exit.
And that bypass I bet will connect to the Highway 62 bypass that is planned on the old Medco haul road.

[Willie Krash]

They spent a lot of time and money straightening out Blackwell rd where there used to be a sharp curve at the bottom of the hill.
Before they fixed that curve in 2012 (some called dead mans curve) there were three fatalities in the three years prior.
There's no reason for anyone to haul freight from Kirkland road to Gold hill with the freeway being right there.
That one was all about safety.

The plans to widen and straighten out the curves on foothill road are to come after Foothill rd is extended so that instead of dead ending at Corey rd it will go strait across to 140 and align with Atlantic Ave.
This will give (according to the county) a better access from Phoenix to Eagle Point. Only after this project will the curves on foothill be straightened out and it's allegedly all about safety.

But getting back to freight... I think this eventually be a good path for truckers going from I-5 at Phoenix to Klamath Falls.

BTW another major road project is to finish making Table Rock road wider all the way to Antelope. This road is considered to be one of the areas most dangerous roads.

We pointed out to ODOT over 5 years ago that the Fern Valley Interchange is a regional interchange and the little town of Phoenix shouldn't pick up the millions it would owe...A lot of plausible deniability.

Never disagreed that things were not done for safety, of course. Freight is a big driver. A very lot of precious hard to find dollars are directed at freight.
Their is still a rather large quarry operation that uses Blackwell road but I could be wrong about it's access points.

[bbqboy]

It"s kirtland that drives that now. Blackwell is an afterthought. The south Medford interchange and the Phoenix one should have been the South Stage interchange but they let them put the golf course in the way.

[Someones Dad]

Needs bike lanes

Agreed! But one should bear in mind, it will always be more dangerous for bikes and joggers due to visibility around blind corners.

[Wonky]

Needs bike lanes

Agreed! But one should bear in mind, it will always be more dangerous for bikes and joggers due to visibility around blind corners.

Prayer answers everything.

[Someones Dad]

Needs bike lanes

Agreed! But one should bear in mind, it will always be more dangerous for bikes and joggers due to visibility around blind corners.

Prayer answers everything.

Well, I don't know you, but it seems to me that my having a viewpoint on a topic outside of the Religion section should not be met with mocking. Being a Christian does not mean I am one dimensional.

My point had zero to do with faith. Just the reality of the safety issues on Foothill Road.

I hope our future interactions will be more meaningful.

edit. Before I am attacked for not understanding that he was joking, of course he was. But that doesn't lessen the impact of the secondary meaning behind his post, which is, any opinion I have on any subject can be ignored simply because of one dimension of my life. Call me thin skinned all you want, but there are realities to non-acceptance, and the subtle ways people have of discarding others.

Enjoy the day. It will be a grand one.

[Scrapper]

Needs bike lanes

Agreed! But one should bear in mind, it will always be more dangerous for bikes and joggers due to visibility around blind corners.

Prayer answers everything.

Well, I don't know you, but it seems to me that my having a viewpoint on a topic outside of the Religion section should not be met with mocking. Being a Christian does not mean I am one dimensional.

My point had zero to do with faith. Just the reality of the safety issues on Foothill Road.

I hope our future interactions will be more meaningful.

edit. Before I am attacked for not understanding that he was joking, of course he was. But that doesn't lessen the impact of the secondary meaning behind his post, which is, any opinion I have on any subject can be ignored simply because of one dimension of my life. Call me thin skinned all you want, but there are realities to non-acceptance, and the subtle ways people have of discarding others.

Enjoy the day. It will be a grand one.

And that is different from you offering to pray for a person that does not believe in your God how?

[Someones Dad]

Needs bike lanes

Agreed! But one should bear in mind, it will always be more dangerous for bikes and joggers due to visibility around blind corners.

Prayer answers everything.

Well, I don't know you, but it seems to me that my having a viewpoint on a topic outside of the Religion section should not be met with mocking. Being a Christian does not mean I am one dimensional.

My point had zero to do with faith. Just the reality of the safety issues on Foothill Road.

I hope our future interactions will be more meaningful.

edit. Before I am attacked for not understanding that he was joking, of course he was. But that doesn't lessen the impact of the secondary meaning behind his post, which is, any opinion I have on any subject can be ignored simply because of one dimension of my life. Call me thin skinned all you want, but there are realities to non-acceptance, and the subtle ways people have of discarding others.

Enjoy the day. It will be a grand one.

And that is different from you offering to pray for a person that does not believe in your God how?

For the third time, is that issue not settled for you? I have apologized and will refrain from doing so in the future. I hope that is satisfactory for you, because frankly, it appears you only have comment to repeat over and over.

I hope your day improves, I know mine will.

Also, this topic is in no way a religion topic, and I certainly did not bring it in.

[Someones Dad]

Does anyone know if there are any visible plans to where they plan on straightening? I also wonder if part of the reason it might take so long might be aquiring some personal property?

[cletus1]

Needs bike lanes

Agreed! But one should bear in mind, it will always be more dangerous for bikes and joggers due to visibility around blind corners.

Prayer answers everything.

Wonk, do you prefer to poke the people that hold religious beliefs and not the beliefs? I recall countless admonitions from you about my criticizing of religion. Just wondering. Of course this post could be one of your failed attempt at humor usually you're more amusing and clever.