PORTLAND, Ore. -- Big changes coming for drivers and pedestrians on East Burnside Street. In three weeks, Portland's busy thoroughfare will turn into a one-way couplet along with Couch Street.
It's a major traffic change and a major headache for businesses right now.
Since last summer, the areas surrounding the intersection of Sandy Blvd. and Burnside and Couch have been in gridlock.
Disruptions will climax in the next three weeks as the traffic flow conversion takes place. Burnside and Couch will become a one-way couplet headed in opposite directions. Burnside eastbound, Couch westbound.
The notoriously dangerous and confusing intersection at 12th, Sandy and Burnside will become simplified. It's all designed to improve the flow of traffic and spur new development in the growing business district.
Businesses hope there's a payoff.
"I have been really supportive about the project and just sort of gritting and bearing it during the construction phases," said Juliana Lukasik, owner of @ Large Films on Couch.
As part of the project, Sandy Boulevard will vanish between 12th and 14th Avenues.
That means Northwest Fitness will lose its address.
The fitness equipment retailer has just learned the city is giving the store a new address on the backside of the building, currently covered in graffiti with no windows and no usable doors.
"Maybe they're going to make it so bad that nobody will want to come down here anymore," said Sales Manager Mike Davis.
The Portland City Council authorized the $18 million project back in 2002 after decades of planning.
The city is sharing the cost of the Burnside-Couch couplet with the state and the federal government.
"We're slowly getting people used to this," said Dan Anderson, a spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. "We don't want to bring this on everyone at once."
