The Oregon Department of Transportation is taking a fresh look at a rural Hillsboro-area intersection after a June 15 collision killed a motorcyclist. Neighbors and relatives say they had been sounding the alarm for years about the corner at SW Hillsboro Highway (OR‑219) and SW Scholls Ferry Road and are pushing for real engineering fixes instead of what they see as temporary band-aids. The crash that took the life of 32-year-old Brandon Henderson has turned up the heat on a long-running debate over whether low-cost tweaks will actually make a dent in the danger.
ODOT review and possible fixes
ODOT’s Region 1 office says it has launched a review of the site and will look at crash history, the Safety Priority Index System, complaint records and current conditions before recommending any changes, according to Region 1 public affairs. The agency told KATU that short-term options on the table include more signage, flashing beacons or fresh striping, and that these lower-cost projects typically run between $10,000 and $20,000.
Officials added that bigger-ticket ideas such as a traffic signal, a roundabout or widening the roadway would likely cost from hundreds of thousands up to the millions and would have to be proposed for inclusion in the state’s multi-year construction program. Even the cheaper measures, ODOT said, would probably take at least several weeks to roll out.
How funding and timelines work…