Sean C. Morgan
Linn County is moving forward with a grant-funded plan to improve Foster Dam Access Road, the road that runs up the south end of the dam from Wiley Park, which includes paving the parking lot at the road’s intersection with Poplar Street.
The Board of Commissioners opened bids for the project during its regular meeting on Oct. 2. Awarding the project to the low bidder was on the agenda for its regular meeting on Oct. 9, which was held after press time.
County Engineer Chuck Knoll said the low bid was $826,000. The project is funded by a $1.3 million grant from the Federal Lands Access Program administered by Western Federal Lands of the Federal Highway Administration. The funding also covers design and engineering costs.
“Linn County has been blessed with a really strong relationship with the federal government,” said Commissioner Will Tucker, noting the county is using federal funds on a project at Mill City and last year on Quartzville Road.
This is the second of three FLAP-funded projects around Sweet Home, said Roadmaster Darrin Lane. Last year, the county used FLAP funding to improve Quartzville Road up to Green Peter Dam, including a redesign and improvement of the parking lot at the dam.
The Foster Dam Access Road project stretches from its connection to 60th Avenue across the dam to North River Drive.
The county will widen the road from 60th Avenue to Poplar Street, Knoll said. That route is used as a detour by truck traffic that cannot fit under the railroad trestle on Highway 20.
The project will improve the pedestrian crossing at what is colloquially known as “Poverty Beach,” with a signal, from the parking lot there to the shore of Foster Lake, Knoll said, and it will pave the gravel parking lot. A pedestrian path will stretch from Poplar Street south of Foster Dam Access Road to connect to Foster Lake Trail at 60th Avenue.
Guardrails on Foster Dam Road have been there since the 1960s, Knoll said. The county will replace all of it, bringing it up to modern standards for guardrails. The entire road will be resurfaced.
The condition of the pavement is rated 55, based on deterioration that include cracks and base failure, according to the grant application. If preventative maintenance is not provided, rapid deterioration of the road will continue, resulting in the road having to be rebuilt.
The project also includes paving the shoulder on Poplar Street between Foster Dam Access Road and Crane Access Road, which leads down to Wiley Creek Park and The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offices and Foster powerhouse. The shoulder will be usable by pedestrians and bicyclists.
Knoll said he didn’t know when the project will begin. That depends on the contractor’s schedule.
The contractor could start this fall, with paving in May, Knoll said, or the contractor could wait until April to start, Knoll said. The county will know more after meeting with the contractor.
At that point, the schedule will be posted to the county’s website, Knoll said. Ideally, the project will be completed by May 31.
During the project, the detour route will remain open to truck traffic, he said.
Linn County engineering staff, primarily Daineal Malone, a civil engineer and project and design engineer for this project, and Knoll prepared and submitted the funding request, which was awarded in April 2016.
Since then, Linn County Engineering Staff have been busy completing the engineering design and specifications for this project. Part of this design is working in coordination with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the property where the project is located, to meet its approval.
Linn County has been providing maintenance to Foster Dam Road and the Foster Dam Road Parking Lot since September 1972 under a Memorandum of Agreement with the Corps.
Linn County has also been working with the City of Sweet Home to ensure the needs of the city are met since Foster Dam Road connects to two city streets, Poplar Street and 60th Avenue which intersects with Highway 20.
“We had written support by a number of active organizations,” Knoll said. “Foster Lake also attracts a large number of visitors to the Sweet Home Area and improvements from this project will only help improve this attraction as well as the economic benefit associated with the improvements.”
“Our Road Department is one of the few capable of administering a federal grant (design and administration),” Tucker said. “It really is the citizens’ tax money coming back into the county.”
The third FLAP-funded project, North River Drive from Quartzville Road to Foster Dam Access Road, is in the design phase, Knoll said. The project will including widening with paved shoulders, providing an increasing number of pedestrians and bicyclists a place to go during annual events. It also will expand parking at Lewis Creek Park.
The project will include a pavement overlay and base stabilization to prevent slumping that just a few years ago led to a portion of North River Drive remaining gravel for an extended period.
“If everything goes well, we’ll have that out for bid this next year,” Knoll said, with completion in 2020.
The county is preparing a grant application to improve North River Drive west of Foster Dam Access Road, Knoll said. That will require cutting into roadside rock formations to widen the road and pave the shoulders.