WALLOWA LAKE – Bicyclists, joggers and walkers beware when traveling the narrow highway along Wallowa Lake with motor vehicle traffic.

Pedestrians using Highway 351 along Wallowa Lake share the roadway with vehicle traffic traveling at a marked speed limit of 55 miles per hour. Safety concerns along that stretch of highway have been talked about by county and state officials for many years and were included as the second highest traffic safety priority for pedestrians in the 1995 Wallowa County Transportation Plan.

The South Wallowa Lake Property Owners Association has renewed interest in lakeside pedestrian safety after passing a resolution Sept. 3 supporting the development of a pedestrian and bike path along Highway 351 between the city of Joseph and the Wallowa Lake State Park.

“This high-speed highway with heavy traffic volumes poses a significant safety risk to pedestrians, bikers, and motorists. A proactive measure needs to be taken before the inevitable tragedy occurs,” the property owners state in the resolution.

Hurricane Creek Road and the Wallowa Lake stretch of Highway 351 are listed as the top two priorities for pedestrian safety in the county’s 1995 transportation plan and in the Oregon State Highway 82 Corridor Plan.

Now, more than 15 years after being identified in the county’s plan, the safety issues on Hurricane Creek Road are being addressed with a major improvement project under way, including a new bike path with construction slated to begin during spring of 2012.

While the Hurricane Creek Road project has begun, supporters of a pedestrian safety upgrade to Highway 351 may face a more difficult challenge.

Oregon Dept. of Transportation officials have looked at two options for widening Highway 351 to accommodate a new bike path and both are wrought with difficulties and prove cost-prohibitive, according to Oregon Dept. of Transportation Region 13 manager Mike Buchanan.

In 1997, ODOT estimated the cost of widening Highway 351 at $5.72 million. Widening the highway on the east side of the lake would come at great expense because of necessary excavation work by heavy equipment to cut into the lake’s east moraine.

The state’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Fund holds only $5 million in the state’s two-year budget, according to Buchanan. He added that the county could apply for funding for the project, but that funding was given out on a competitive basis. The Highway 351 request would probably be considered a low priority because of light traffic flow of below 3,000 motor vehicles per day. With less than 3,000 vehicles daily, that stretch of Highway 351 is considered by the state as a “shared roadway” between motor vehicles and pedestrian traffic, according to Buchanan.