Finishing a job
Area ODOT projects will taper off after upswing
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:24 AM PDT
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| Construction crews were busy putting the finishing touches on the North Ontario Interchange Tuesday as the project nears completion. The Oregon Department of Transportation has completed more than $90 million worth of projects in Malheur County in the last 10 years. |
ONTARIO — Malheur County residents may notice fewer Oregon Department of Transportation projects locally during the next 24 months.
That will certainly be a change from what has become the norm after the state agency poured nearly $100 million into a variety of projects across the county.
The Oregon Department of Transportation is in the process of drawing up its list of projects that will be the focus of the agency’s planning and construction for 2010 to 2013. Monday, ODOT Public Affairs Representative Tom Strandberg told the Ontario Chamber of Commerce while there are fewer projects slated for Malheur County, the local area will still host a number of endeavors, and the state agency will give residents an opportunity to comment and make suggestions on those ventures before a final transportation plan is approved.
An ODOT Region 5 video conference will be held Nov. 6 in Ontario, Strandberg said, and the public is invited to attend the session and deliver input. Region 5 encompasses eight Eastern Oregon counties.
“The statewide transportation improvement program is a four-year program that identifies what projects are going to be funded,” Strandberg said. “It is not a planning document.”
The STIP is updated every year so some projects roll over from one to the next until completion. Projects must be in the STIP to receive federal funding, he said.
ODOT chooses projects from local transportation system plans for cities and counties based on issues such as bridge conditions, pavement conditions and safety management, he said.
Spending on highway projects is generally split along the lines of modernization, preservation and interstate maintenance, bridge operations and safety, according to information Strandberg provided.
Two pavement preservation projects listed in the proposed STIP in Malheur County include U.S. Highway 20/26 through Nyssa, from 11th Street to the Snake River Bridge or the state line, and Interstate 84, from Jacobsen Gulch to the state line.
Three projects listed under safety and miscellaneous programs in Malheur County include preparation work for jurisdictional exchange with the city of Ontario of East Idaho Avenue and Washington Street; construction of left turn lanes at the intersection of U.S Highway 20/26 and Lincoln Drive, and grinding rumble strips into the center lane on U.S. Highway 95.
Those projects are tentatively scheduled for construction in 2010 and later. Projects already in the STIP include the construction of left turn lane on U.S. Highway 20/26 at Columbia Avenue and an additional truck-passing lane at Three-Mile Hill.
“Region 5 is about 35 percent of the state’s land mass,” Rena Cusma, ODOT’s South Area manager based in Ontario, said, during the presentation to the chamber. Cusma, who works on the construction side at ODOT, said there are about 11,000 miles of state highway in Malheur, Harney and Grant counties.
In the last 10 years the state has spent $97.5 million on projects in Malheur County, Cusma said. Those projects included the Yturri Memorial Beltline, the North Ontario Interchange, the South Bypass and downtown projects in Nyssa and Vale.
But with the downturn in the economy and motorists driving less with higher fuel prices, there is less revenue for ODOT to work with, plus construction and materials costs have skyrocketed.
“We’re going to be able to do less and it will cost us more,” Cusma said. The cost of oil for asphalt has doubled from last year, she said.
