Hospital needs road diagnosis.

Byline: Joe Harwood The Register-Guard

Triad Hospitals Inc. has encountered another pothole in its drive to build a hospital complex off Delta Highway North.

State hospital regulators want to know how much money Triad will have to spend to improve roads in the north Eugene area where the Texas-based health corporation wants to build the $225 million McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center.

Until Triad provides firm cost estimates to fix traffic problems associated with congestion the proposed hospital would create along Delta Highway, and possibly at the Delta Highway-Belt Line Road interchange, regulators say they won't start considering McKenzie-Willamette's application for a new hospital operating permit.

Regulators with the state Health Services Division earlier this month sent McKenzie-Willamette officials a letter listing the roadwork costs and 27 other issues in the application for which the state needs further information.

Along with queries about transportation improvement costs Triad will likely have to shoulder, the letter requested information about the cost of the 42 acres - the back nine holes of RiverRidge Golf Course - Triad plans to buy on which to site the hospital.

Jana Fussell, coordinator for the state's hospital licensing program, said any money Triad spends upgrading roads should be included as part of the project's total cost. Fussell and other officials scrutinize requests for new hospitals to make sure the proposals are financially sound and won't lead to higher medical costs.

Divulging land costs might prove far easier than tackling the thorny land use and transportation issues posed by Triad's preferred location.

The so-called Delta Ridge site is accessed via what transportation engineers say is the most congested interchange in the metro area: Belt Line at Delta Highway.

The proposed eight-story, 425,000-square-foot regional medical center and adjoining 100,000 square feet of medical office space would sit north of the Belt Line stretch between Coburg and River roads, an area that ranks in the top 10 percent of vehicle crash sites in the Eugene-Springfield area.

Any time a proposed development "significantly affects" a state-owned roadway such as Belt Line, state rules require the developer to evaluate the congestion caused by the new project and take steps to mitigate it.

PeaceHealth, for example, had to pledge more than $17 million to state and city road funds in order to win permission to build its RiverBend medical center now under construction in north Springfield.

Rosie Pryor, spokeswoman for McKenzie-Willamette, said a traffic impact analysis for the Delta Highway North area is under way and should be completed by mid-March. The results of that study will detail the amount of congestion that would be generated by the hospital's 740 employees, tenants of the medical offices, and patients of both.

The analysis also will offer strategies to ease congestion resulting from the development. Then, hospital officials will need to reach agreement with local and state traffic officials on solutions. At that point, the hospital would be able to provide numbers to state officials.

Preliminary estimates to improve city streets around the Delta Ridge site shouldn't pose much of a burden to Triad, which is expected to report revenues of roughly $5 billion for 2005.

Discussions between Triad's traffic engineer, Chris Clemow of Portland-based Group Mackenzie, and city and state transportation officials have come up with a preliminary cost estimate to upgrade about 1,700 square feet of Delta Highway North from Ayres Road north along the length of the Triad property. Creating a three-lane road that meets city street standards and adding a traffic light would cost about $2.6 million.

Triad would be on the hook for those costs. Until the traffic study is complete, however, the $2.6 million figure is just an educated guess, Clemow said. Eugene Public Works officials confirmed the estimate.

"We understand that those kinds of transportation improvements are the property owner's responsibility," said Pryor. "We are prepared to step up and pay for those costs."

The tougher issue, however, will be figuring out how much if anything Triad should pay to fix the Belt Line-Delta Highway interchange, which state traffic engineers already consider to be failing at peak afternoon rush hour. Triad wouldn't be responsible for the full cost, but probably would have to pay an amount proportional to its impact, Clemow said.

In a stroke of luck for Triad, however, the state transportation rules in effect at the time PeaceHealth agreed to shell out $17 million to fix traffic problems were changed in 2005.

Ironically, the amended rules could save McKenzie-Willamette millions of dollars in road upgrade expenses.

The ordinances adopted last year followed PeaceHealth-related rulings by the state Court of Appeals and the state Land Use Board of Appeals.

PeaceHealth had argued that it should be allowed to build its RiverBend medical/commercial/office complex provided the city, county and state promised that eventually - perhaps even 15 years later - sufficient transportation infrastructure would be added to handle the traffic the project would draw.

The panels disagreed, finding that state rules required PeaceHealth to mitigate the effects of traffic as the complex is built out.

The ruling alarmed state lawmakers, who worried the precedents would freeze economic development statewide. The new rules make clear that significant transportation upgrades are not required before a project is built.

If fixes are planned and included on a metro area's Regional Transportation Plan - a document that prioritizes transportation improvement projects over a 20- or 25-year period - then a developer can argue that those upgrades are as good as built, said Rob Zako, transportation advocate for the land use group 1000 Friends of Oregon.

"As long as the project is on the plan, whether there is money to fund it or not, that is good enough," Zako said.

There's already some public money - but not much - slated to be spent on Belt Line in the Eugene-Springfield transportation plan.

Other than $1 million slated for a 2009 study of the Belt Line corridor between River and Coburg roads, and about $8 million Lane County will spend to add capacity to the interchange, there are no other Delta Highway North area upgrades on the regional plan.

Zako said public officials could add more Belt Line work to the publicly funded regional plan to spare Triad the expense.

`(Triad) might not have any costs' to fix Belt Line, Zako said. "My suspicion is they are going to get a free pass."

Clemow said such a scenario is unlikely. He said the state Department of Transportation has long wanted to come up with a long-term fix for the corridor, but hasn't been able to agree on a single approach with the county and city.

The regional transportation plan, for example, lists the Belt Line Road area as in need of further study and "major improvements," but doesn't detail what those fixes should be.

"We are going to be wholly responsible for our proportional share," he said. "Hopefully, whatever we come up with can be the first phase of a long-term fix."

Preliminary solutions to offset Triad-related traffic include ramp metering that limits the number of vehicles allowed to enter the roadway from on-ramps at rush hour, Clemow said. Ramp meters are used extensively in the Portland metro area and in other large cities with good effect, he said.