ODOT officials gear up for North Ontario Interchange task
By Larry Meyer - Argus Observer
Friday, March 23, 2007 12:11 PM PDT
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| With construction work at the North Ontario Interchange about to begin, utility workers continue to reroute powerlines around the area. Work on the interchange project is expected to begin in earnest next week, according to officials from Kerr Contractors Inc., which is the general contractor for the venture. |
ONTARIO - Work should begin soon on the long-awaited construction of a new North Ontario Interchange to connect Interstate 84 and Oregon Highway 201, after a final preconstruction conference was held between contractors and state and local officials Tuesday.
“Generally, this project has been in the works for 10 years. This is the culmination of the Yturri Memorial Beltline,” Oregon Department of Transportation Project Manager Paul Woodworth said after the final, day-long preconstruction conference at the ODOT office in Ontario.
Nick Bezates, project manager for Kerr Contractors Inc., Woodburn — the general contractor for the north Ontario project — said at the Tuesday meeting that along with building a new overpass for Oregon Highway 201, the project will also include widening the bridges over the Malheur River.
“We’re going to realign all the ramps,” he said. “We plan to get started next week with the fill (work).” The completion date is Oct. 31, 2008, Bezates said.
“We expect to be completed by that date,” he said. “For most of the project, traffic will still be in the same configuration.”
There will only be a couple of times or so when the freeway will be closed at the site entirely, but traffic will be rerouted over the on and off ramps, Bezates said.
Excavation and fill work will start within the next two weeks, cutting off some access to some local streets from the east, including Falcon Drive.
Local emergency services officials in attendance at the session just asked that the dispatching centers for city, county and state agencies be notified.
Much of the fill will arrive from the excavation work going on at the Stanton Boulevard extension project now underway, Bezates said.
“Highway 201 will see a lot of heavy truck traffic,” he said. But the North Ontario Interchange venture is not the only project taking place along Interstate 84 over the next two years, Woodworth said, noting work being done on the Snake River Bridges (see Argus Observer story, “ODOT projects gain early start,” March 20) and two other bridges in the area.
“There is a lot of construction going on (with) this short stretch of freeway,” he said. He told the assembled officials that if they have questions about either project, they should call him and he would put them in contact with the right person.
Referring to the North Ontario Interchange project, “This is one of the biggest projects we’re going to be doing in the state this year,” Woodworth said.
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And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "