Turns Too Tight for Huge Trucks at Terwilliger and Taylors Ferry

This article is about the abuse of our big intersection, down at "the Corner" by 52' semi trailer trucks passing through. We ask, does the intersection need to be modified to accommodate them, or should there be restrictions??

Arrows

• Yellow arrows — Trucks Turning right from Taylors Ferry onto Terwilliger (toward I-5)
• Blue arrows — Trucks Turning left from Terwilliger onto Taylors Ferry (towards river).

Symbols

• Red Star denotes the location of a post bearing a pedestrian crossing request button.
• Green and Brown hexagons denote bases of traffic signal poles.
• Orange rectangle denotes approximate location of demolished bus shelter

Trucks along the yellow arrows come up onto the sidewalk, leaving no room for pedestrians. Trucks may also scrape two utility poles or an 18" steel traffic signal pole. The pole denoted by the brown hexagon has been scraped by at least one truck traveling along the Yellow arrow. See photo below.

More often yellow arrow trucks hit a 5" steel post with a button for pedestrians, knocking it over, or shearing the button box off the post.

If a yellow arrow trucker swings wider - s/he may impinge on traffic outside of their lane on Terwilliger, having to stop and wait for smaller vehicles to get out of their way somehow.

Trucks along the blue arrow need to track their rear wheels across the turn lane on Taylors Ferry, and sometimes get wedged — unable to make the turn in one attempt, causing traffic delays (and danger, in the author's opinion).

Basically, this intersections can't accommodate semi-trucks with 52' trailers!

When a semi practically gets jack-knifed in either place and has to back up to try again, it ties up the intersection for ~10 minutes or more. Try doing that in the middle of the day with 100's of cars around, and you'll back traffic up real good..

Trucks Turning right from Taylors Ferry onto Terwilliger (toward I-5)

Here we explore the impacts of Yellow Arrow large truck traffic.

The post shown above keeps getting hit and sometimes knocked down by trucks. You can see faint tire tracks on the sidewalk. The above view is from north of the post. (TokyRoll is in view across Taylors Ferry)

Tracks are apparent due to good old Oregon slime.

Player down on the Field!

Lamp Post was evidently moved back out of the way on the Sidewalk. This has happened several times in the last year or so.

Culprit Caught on Film!

This big blue rig (traveling the yellow arrow arc) had traffic tied up while it tried to negotiate the right turn from uphill Taylors Ferry onto NB Terwilliger. Since the bus was quite delayed, I had time to decide to grab a picture out the front window when we advanced to the left turn lane (NB Terwilliger onto west Bound Taylors Ferry.

The next morning, I noticed the damage done. The whole base was displaced and pole knocked off kilter. Yikes!

This happens all the time folks...

Sometime later, after the above was repaired, the plastic/metal base got broken again. No heavy damage was done. I should go check to see what shape it's in to-day. Your tax dollars are hard at work here, folks.

Traffic Signal Pole with Signs of Scrapings (brown hexagon on map)

This is like art work. Could we put it in a gallery somewhere? The "Trucker's Near Miss" art gallery?

Above is evidence (you can see for yourself) that the traffic signal pole gets scrapped. The truck trailer must have sustained damaged too. Imagine if a truck ever took out this pole — Mega Grande Bucks to fix that!

Wooden Pole getting shredded

There are two wooden utility poles downhill from the corner on the north side of Taylors Ferry (toward the fire station.) This one is obviously getting chewed up by rigs passing by. You can see these things over time by looking on Google Street View at differ years.

Just plain Sad...

Here we go again! Signal button knocked off. This also happens on the south east corner.

Trucks Turning left from Terwilliger onto Taylors Ferry (towards river)

Here is our most recent example.

Big Blue Truck Turning. 2:22pm, Feb 03, 2023. Continental Express, license AAF457. Ohio.

Fortunately there was only one car in the Taylors Ferry turn lane at the time, with a co-operative driver. She backed up, No problem. HOWEVER, there are often 10 or more cars queued up right there waiting for the left turn signal. Had that been the case, you would have 10 cars all backing downhill away from the light while additional cars might be coming uphill to get in that queue.

A vigilant neighbor called Continental Trucking and talked to 'Aaron'. Aaron took all the information, and was very surprised to learn about our problem with Continental trucks. Aaron is with Continental Trucking here in Portland. Aaron is sending info on this situation to his supervisor for an explanation. (We'll share any news here -ed.)

Keep on Truckin'

It's been going on for years.

I'm pretty sure this guy held up traffic too.

What Can We Do?

If you see this happening, get a photo of the side of the cab with the DOT# on it. Contact the company, citing that number, location, time-of-day, any markings on Truck, and your photo. Tell them that the intersection can't accommodate large trucks, and that they should explore other routes.

If you don't want to contact the company just email the info to traffic 'at' newcollinsview.blog and we will contact the company to make our point.

In the meantime, we will try to get to the bottom of why they might be doing this. Something Google Maps or other navigation app is telling them? Is it something the State of Oregon has published?? And so on.

DETOUR ... From where to where?

These signs are over at Barbur & Terwilliger. Hmmm. What is/was this about? Is there some vestige of this Detour in the ODOT "System" somewhere?

No photo yet of any detour sign(s) supposedly on I-5. Volunteer?

References

• Proposed Safety Improvements for the Terwilliger / Taylors Ferry Intersection |BLOG|
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Editor's Note

A local resident uses a stroller or walker to negotiate the sidewalk to get between her home and the market and TriMet #39. She has feared for her life when these trucks come though and potentially pin her against that wall. She has said this on Nextdoor. Other pedestrians have experienced this situation. This should be of concern of the community, but it seems that most are safely secure in their auto-mobiles.

This article came about as a result of seeing the above person's remarks about this intersection. The author walks through this intersection all the time for a variety of reasons, and has observed poles down, signals busted, and has taken a number of photos over the years while waiting for lights to change!

Thanks to Judy Anderson for her help with this.

Disclaimer! The author does not have a Commercial Drivers License, nor could he back up a simple boat trailer!

Photos by J Miller, and from Google Street View. Editor: J Miller

Questions for Our Readers

• Does the intersection need to be modified to accommodate 52' semi trailer trucks, or should there be restrictions??
• What's with the "43 Detour" signage? Is that project over? Who is in charge?
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Comments submitted on this article

The Comments made on Nextdoor about this subject 27 Nov - Dec 1, 2022. New comments resulting from this Blog article will be added as time permits.

Comment: I used to work at the vet clinic and had a full view of that corner. There are semi's that come up and turn right onto Terwilliger. It's a sharp turn and often times their rear wheels would go up on the curb. When I used to cross to get lunch at Market of Choice I waited next to the retaining wall because it was so common that vehicles would cut the corner or not obey the stop light. The pedestrian crossing light on Barbur and Alice St. has been taken out multiple times by semi and box trucks that don't see it when it's not dark and not flashing.

Comment: I take buses at Taylors Ferry and Terwilliger. (I do not drive). I miss the shelter in front of the Shell station -- It was hit by a vehicle or truck. I saw the remains of the Shelter the following day. The pieces were removed and never replaced. During the rainy season, I have no protection.

Comment: I personally had to run for safety when this last summer a hugh Semi truck turned off of Taylors Ferry onto Terwilliger. I am handicapped and it was difficult to get off the sidewalk and behind the fence of the parking area. The Semi came across the sidewalk as they usually do and took two lanes to make its turn. Cars waiting to proceed had to back up and pull far over to curb.

Comment: I remember waiting there (The traffic island) for the pedestrian walk sign. When a semi truck came to make a right turn, it took me a second to realize that he needed to go up on the sidewalk, so I had to move away from the sidewalk completely so he could make his turn. It's not the best spot for pedestrians!

Comment: I wonder if the Drivers are using some GPS or route app that tells them to take the Terwilliger exit off I-5, then go to Taylors Ferry to get to the Sellwood Bridge?? That's the only thing I can think of.but WHY do they keep doing this? No better Truck route, evidently. Seems like they should be using I-205 and exiting at Oregon City. Who knows?

Comment: Driving south on I-5 just prior to the Terwilliger exit there is a detour sign directing drivers headed to hwy 43 to take the Terwilliger exit. Another detour arrow sign pointing east on Terwilliger sits on the corner in front of the Kaady carwash. For some reason cars are being diverted to 43 down Terwilliger so that may be part of the rise in traffic along Terwilliger.

Comment on Facebook: I witnessed one of these within the last month or two. Somewhat traumatic. The semi was coming up Taylors Ferry and turning right on Terwilliger. It took out the crosswalk sign (ripped the entire thing out of the sidewalk) and nearly took out the overhead light signals. What the heck are they doing coming up Taylors Ferry?

Many solutions were proposed and discussed in December 2022 on NextDoor.

Any comments made in in response to this 2/13/23 article will follow here.

How this Blog Post should be (was) described on Social Media

Here is what we said on Nextdoor: 52' trailer semi trucks regularly pass through the Taylors Ferry & Terwilliger, intersection damaging various poles and sometimes snarling traffic. The New Collins View Blog documents these patterns and asks what might be done to alleviate this affront to our corner crossroads. Comments on the article are welcome here! (raw link here)