Guardrail work to begin, at higher cost.

Byline: Jack Moran The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - The price of safety has doubled, at least in the case of a 4,000-foot-long guardrail city officials will pay to have installed along the center median of the new Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in the Gateway area.

Brown Contracting of Eugene is expected to begin work later this month on the project, which should prevent vehicles from jumping the curb and slamming into thick concrete power poles located in the median, or into oncoming traffic.

Brown was awarded the project after submitting to city officials a bid of $416,490. That's lower than other firms' bids, but still about twice as much as public works engineers initially anticipated spending on the job.

The project cost rose dramatically after city officials discovered that several other options were unworkable or even more expensive than the plan that was ultimately chosen.

"There were a lot of constructability issues we had to address," said Paul Von Rotz, a city engineer.

The strategy now entails pouring a concrete footing along the median, and bolting heavy duty metal posts to it. A metal guardrail will be fastened to the posts.

While the parkway's 45-mph stretch isn't considered technically unsafe from an engineering standpoint, city officials learned last winter that installing a protective barrier along the new road would be prudent. On a few icy evenings and mornings, vehicles slipped and slid across the street, some of them crashing into the median that separates the northbound and southbound lanes.

"What we saw on those icy days was scary," Von Rotz said. "We found a lot of tire tracks in that median."

The barrier idea was initially suggested by City Councilor Joe Pishioneri, a Lane County sheriff's deputy who said he noticed the potential safety hazard when the parkway first opened last September.

"I thought it could be (treated by drivers as) a speedway, and also be unsafe during winter driving conditions," Pishioneri said.

Pishioneri's main concern was that a speeding or out-of-control vehicle could crash into any of a series of concrete utility poles situated in the median.

The fact that the guardrail project will cost far more than public works officials expected last November when they reviewed the plan with the City Council doesn't bother Pishioneri.

"The No. 1 priority for us with this has to be safety," he said. "The money is there, and the railing will be a good thing for our citizens."

Von Rotz said funding for the project is available in the city's parkway construction budget. The new road was completed for about $10 million, with the bulk of the funding provided by Lane County and PeaceHealth, which is building a medical center along the parkway.