The Washington Way (WW) corridor through the heart of campus is complex. Running along a narrow corridor is a road, a shared use path (for pedestrians and bicyclists), and an active freight railroad line. The actual road, SW Washington Way, is narrow and contains no on-street bike lanes.

A multi-year project has started to address many of the issues surrounding the Washington Way corridor–from SW 35th Street to the west all the way to SW Benton Place to the east. OSU, coordinating with the city of Corvallis and the Union Pacific Railroad, is working right now to design new facilities along SW Washington Way, consisting of a new bike and pedestrian facilities and a better-landscaped corridor. Safe and attractive drop off areas will be added for cars and buses. The project is in the design phase and plans to be finished in 2022.

“This summer we’ll have a better idea of how this project will look,” explained Aaron Collett, project manager for the WW corridor. “You may see utility investigation and survey crews out, getting a better handle on what will all need to be managed during the project, but construction won’t begin until 2020.”

Updates to the project, including impacts to campus operations, will be shared with the campus community and be available on the Washington Way Reconstruction project page.