The Philomath City Council ratified a contract Monday with transportation engineering firm DKS to develop the city’s first Transportation Safety Action Plan, a data-driven effort aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries on local roads.
The council approved City Manager Chris Workman’s signature on the $79,941.80 contract, which he executed prior to council review due to concerns about losing $80,000 in funding from the Corvallis Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
“I followed the appropriate procurement procedures, having received three written bids for the consulting work, but I was not able to wait until the Council reviewed the agreement before signing it,” Workman stated in his recommendation to the council. “I was concerned about delays that might cause the city to lose the $80,000 in funding that was available from CAMPO.”
Workman later secured an extension from CAMPO, giving the city until Dec. 31, 2026, to spend the funds.
The funding was originally allocated for a trail system that involved school district property and would’ve connected South 17th to Willow Street. But the project became unnecessary when the city extended 16th Street through the area behind Philomath Elementary.
After that project was completed, the school district still had usable land in that area but as Workman said, “The school district wasn’t super excited about doing a formal path through there because they’re still thinking they are going to do something with that.”
The Transportation Safety Action Plan will establish long-term goals, policies, strategies and near-term actions with the intention of creating a safer transportation system. While not required by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the plan makes Philomath eligible for competitive state grant programs that fund safety improvements identified in approved local plans.
Workman said the TSAP looks at the whole area but limits its focus on projects that eliminate “traffic fatalities, injury accidents and consistent near misses and real high-level problematic areas that can be solved with some type of engineering fix.”
Any projects will need to be supported by data, he said.
“We have to show that there have been fatalities, injury accidents or significant cost and exposure for keeping an area safe,” Workman said. “So, it’ll still look at the whole city but it’s going to limit it to like those top four or five projects. It’s not going to be every project that needs safety improvements.”
Workman said ODOT has other funding sources in place for transportation safety projects.
Both Corvallis and Benton County are preparing their own TSAPs with assistance from DKS.
The seven-month project kicked off Dec. 3 with a meeting of the project management team, consisting of Workman, Public Works Director Kevin Fear, and DKS staff. The team intends to meet bi-weekly throughout the project.
The plan builds on the 2023 School Traffic and Circulation Safety Study, which used $40,000 in CAMPO funding to identify safety concerns near Philomath schools. Many recommendations from that study, including highway crossing enhancements such as the pedestrian crossing at 17th Street, remain unfunded.
The project scope includes eight tasks — project management and coordination, public engagement, a vision statement and council work session, safety analysis, projects and strategies, policy and process assessment, reporting and tracking progress, and TSAP documentation.
Instead of hosting a traditional open house, DKS will participate in the Philomath Community Vision 2050 Kickoff Celebration on Jan. 15, where staff will share information and direct residents to an online survey.
Stakeholders including Benton County, Corvallis, ODOT and the school district will be invited to review materials and advise the project management team as work progresses.
Once community feedback and data analysis are complete, the council will work with the team to adopt a vision for the final TSAP.