Sean C. Morgan
Linn County is close to opening Upper Calapooia Drive all the way to the Willamette National Forest.
The County Road Department has been preparing and installing dozens of signs along the route since Weyerhaeuser and the county completed an agreement on Dec. 19 for the county to take over the roadway.
The last hurdle is negotiating with Giustina Resources for six-tenths of a mile of the roadway between the end of the current road and the former Weyerhaeuser section of the road. When complete, Upper Calapooia Drive will be connected to county roadway in the National Forest.
“Until Giustina gives us a deal, it’s a county road you can’t get to,” said Roadmaster Darrin Lane. Although the gate is open, the road is not yet open to the public, which is marked by a sign until the county takes over maintenance of the road.
He hopes that in a few more weeks, the county will be able to open the 12-mile stretch of road, a 6-foot public right-of-way, reaching through privately owned lands, primarily owned by Weyerhaeuser, along the Calapooia River and connecting to additional county roadway within the Sweet Home Ranger District. Giustina and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management also have own property along the road. Total, the county road will stretch some 24 miles from its intersection with Highway 228 in Holley.
“There’s no formal access to the river until you get into the Forest Service,” Lane said. At this point, it will be useful for a drive or visiting the National Forest.
Since the transfer in December, “we’ve put up over 100 signs and delineators to make it safe for the traveling public when we open it up in a few weeks,” Lane said. The delineators mark areas to avoid with vehicles, areas that may be unstable under the weight of a vehicle, for example.
Maybe in the future, the county and Weyerhaeuser can work together to establish waysides, Lane said.
Lane said he will probably talk to Forest Service officials about installing a sign marking the border of the National Forest.
The entire route became a county road in 1907, Lane said. The county vacated the roadway through the private lands in 1954, but the vacation had a reversion clause. The road vacation required an easement for the Forest Service. Under the reversion clause, if the Forest Service ever gave up the easement, the right-of-way would revert to country control.
The Forest Service stopped paying maintenance on the road and gave up the easement in 2008, Lane said. From 1954 to 2008, parts of the road shifted, so the county and landowners had to renegotiate the transfer back to the county.
Long term, the county plans to widen and improve the road, which could include paving it similar to Quartzville Road, Lane said. Other options, such as possible waysides are very much dependent on adjacent landowners and other county departments he said.