Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The rough ride on Highway 228 between Highway 20 and the city limits should come to an end this spring as the Oregon Department of Transportation repaves the highway, which is riddled with potholes.
The project was delayed from 2006 and has been in the final phase of design and engineering.
Holley area resident Diane Gerson will be among those happy over the new project. As she was coming into town last week for a meeting of the school board, of which she is a member, she hit one of the potholes, she told The New Era.
The pothole ruined one of her tires and will likely require the replacement of all four because of the type of car she has, she said. She has an all-wheel drive Subaru and has been told she will need to replace them all at the same time.
She was headed into town in the evening at about the speed limit, she said, when she hit the pothole.
“I was ticked,” she said. “I had to park my car and walk all the way to the board meeting. They come in and fill it with dirt and fill it with asphalt and leave. It needs to be resurfaced.”
The problem is more than her car though, she said. Highway 228 is designated a scenic byway, and she said the condition of that section of the road indicates “we’re not putting our best foot forward.”
Whoever is responsible for the road should get it fixed, she said. It seems like nothing is getting done.
“To avoid those (potholes), you’re driving like you’re drunk,” she said. She told fellow board member and police officer Jeff Lynn, “If you see me driving that road, I’m not drunk.”
The city proposed the project in 2001, City Manager Craig Martin said, and he believes it is being funded through the Oregon Transportation Investment Act.
“They’ve got it pretty well designed and all the documents appear to be in order,” Public Works Director Mike Adams said. “For lack of a better word, they’re in their final review.”
According to information received by the city from ODOT, the project will go out to bid in March with construction beginning in the summer, Public Works Director Mike Adams said. The project is supposed to be complete by Sept. 30.
The project originally was scheduled for construction in 2006, according to 2003 documents, Adams said. The project at that time had an estimated cost of $875,000. The city had no information on the current cost estimate for the project.
“It’s been about three or four years,” said former Councilman and Mayor Tim McQueary, who was the city’s representative to the Cascades West Council of Governments Area Commission on Transportation the entire time he served on the council. He recently stepped down from the council.
“It was supposed to be part of that OTIA II hurry up and create jobs.”
The project started out to be an individual project, and then it was combined with projects in the Central Linn and Tangent areas, McQueary said. “It was supposed to go to ODOT engineering, and then the next thing we hear is it was let out to an outside engineering contractor and then moved back inside ODOT.”
Now the engineering studies are done, and the project is laid out, McQueary said. The cost has gone up to more than $1 million.
“It was one of the things that we were able to get for the Sweet Home area,” McQueary said. “It’s always like pulling teeth to get state money in local communities. I wanted it to move along much faster than it has. At least it sounds like it is going happen now.”
“The potholes, they come and go,” McQueary said. “And I know they wait for opportune periods where the weather (is dry). Once it is wet it really tears the road up, then they have to wait before they can come in and do the patching. New pavement will help.”
The project includes rebuilding parts of the highway and grinding and overlays in other parts.
ODOT officials did not return phone calls about the project.