WETLANDS:
West Eugene
Transportation, Land and
Neighborhood Design Solutions
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WEP would worsen traffic
Osprey
Group report
ignored
WETLANDS alternative
&
2001 "No
Build"
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June 2006: last gasp?
Federal Highway - new route
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WEP alternatives:
$17, $88, or $169 million
WEP
would have more
traffic lights than
WETLANDS alternative
hospital
siting
downtown boondoggles
disaster preparedness
Region 2050
TREES:
Transportation
Energy
Environment
Sustainability
The ideal location for Eugene's new hospital is Second and Garfield, which is relatively central for Eugene's population. The site is large enough for a sizeable complex. It has good access via 6th and 7th Avenues, River Road, Northwest Expressway, Roosevelt Blvd and Highway 99. Spending a half million or so to extend Second Street westward to Highway 99 would facilitate better access to this location (there is no need to build the WEP to do this).
|
| Potential Location: | Second and Garfield | Delta Highway | EWEB | Glenwood |
| Flood Risk | Minimal | Medium | Moderate to High | Severe (especially during dam failure) |
| Nearby roads | 6th and 7th avenues, near West 11th, River Road, Garfield and Chambers, Roosevelt Blvd., Highway 99 (extend Second Street to 99 to complete access, no need to build WEP) | massive reconstruction of Delta and Beltline required | relocated 6th Avenue / Franklin Blvd., new underpass under rail tracks, Ferry Street Bridge | would require expanded I-5 interchange, on new Bus Rapid Transit route |
| Access | all directions | no access to west, north, minimal access to east, south access hampered by clogged Delta / Beltline interchange | all directions except northeast | access is good, but not from most of Eugene |
| Road construction subsidy | a million? (Second Street extended to Hwy 99) | a hundred million or more? | tens of millions (relocation of Franklin Blvd., underpass under railroad tracks) plus tens of millions for EWEB relocation | many tens of millions? |
| Population access | close to geographic center of Eugene population | at far edge of town | next to downtown, relatively central | not central |
| Views from hospital room | Three Sisters, Coburg Hills, South Hills, Bertelsen Nature Park forest, West Eugene Wetlands | Coburg Hills, river, golf course, gravel pits | downtown, river, Coburg Hills | Coburg Hills, I-5 bridges, river |
| Legal constraints | minor zoning change needed | part of site is outside Urban Growth Boundary | riverfront issues, EWEB relocation | ? |
| hazards | some cleanup of site probably needed (mycoremediation with mushrooms) | would result in both regional hospitals on same side of river, earthquake and/or large flood would eliminate health care access for most of Eugene | floods | same side of river as Eugene, but in highly vulnerable flood location downstream of dangerous dams |
www.registerguard.com/news/2006/02/19/c1.cr.welch.0219.p1.php
Bob Welch: Triad & Delta destined for disaster
By Bob Welch
Columnist, The Register-Guard
Published: Sunday, February 19, 2006
www.registerguard.com/news/2007/01/14/ed.col.antitriad.0114.p1.php?section=opinion
Site will never be right for hospital
By Ann Simas
For The Register-Guard
Published: Sunday, January 14, 2007
Belt Line Widening from Coburg Road to River Road
The STIP list also requests the start of a study for widening Belt Line from Coburg Road to River Road. This would be another huge subsidy to the "heart transplant" - the relocation of Peace Health hospital to the McKenzie River floodplain. Tens of millions, at least, would be spent to widen the Belt Line to feed traffic to Peace Health.
This widening would require the reconstruction of the Delta Highway, Norkenzie and Gilham overpasses, since none of these bridges have room for more lanes on Belt Line. In addition, several places lack sufficient right-of-way for more lanes, so there would be major impacts on the residential neighborhoods between Coburg Road and Delta, and on the businesses between the river and River Road. It will be interesting to see the political fallout when pavement-at-any-cost politicians such as (outgoing) Mayor Torrey and Councilor Pape tell their neighbors in the Norkenzie area that they will lose their backyards, if not their homes, so that more lanes can be added to the highway system to facilitate speculative development planned by an out of state hospital corporation masquerading as a "non-profit." It is sad that this official malfeasance causes many citizens to be cynical about the political process.
Peace Health's move is going to force the widening of Belt Line to at least to 6 lanes to River Road, which is not in the TransPlan budget, not even as a “future” project. Widening Belt Line in this area would probably force the relocation of a number of families’ homes, with considerable community impact.
This widening would require the reconstruction of three overpasses - Delta Highway, Norkenzie and Gilham Roads. If the new Norkenzie and Gilham bridges are built next to the existing bridges (so that the roads can remain open during construction), several homes might need to be demolished.McKenzie Willamette hospital vs. EWEB
| The real crisis of health care in Lane County is lack of access |
www.eugeneweekly.com/2005/12/15/coverstory.html
CON Job
Hospital certificate of need process leaves out consumers.
By Alan Pittman
The $600 million cost of the two new hospitals here will be passed through
to local consumers and increase the cost of private health insurance in
Eugene-Springfield, said Bart McMullan, president of Regence BlueCross
BlueShield of Oregon, the state's largest health insurer. "Yes it
will, absolutely."
PeaceHealth and Triad officials have denied they'll charge significantly
more to pay for the new hospitals.
But few people appear to believe them. "The folks who are going to
pay are everyone in Lane County who ever needs to pay for hospital services,"
said Pinney.
Healey calls the hospitals switching cities here a "debacle"
that will cost consumers money and waste scarce health care resources.
Lane County has an estimated 50,000 uninsured people. If distributed evenly,
$600 million is about $12,000 for each uninsured person to buy health
insurance.
"It just seems like a whole lot of wasted health care dollars,"
said Healey. "How many people could get health care for that kind
of money?"