Quartzville campground, road work set to start this summer

Scott Swanson

Linn County is gearing up to start campground construction and work on Quartzville Road this summer, county officials say.

The county is in the process of expanding the existing camping facility at Whitcomb Creek and establishing a campground at Trout Creek, near the northern tip of the Quartzville Creek arm of Green Peter Reservoir.

Both campgrounds will be on the north shore of the lake. County commissioners earlier this month approved the first step in the development, a lease agreement with the Bureau of Land Management to include Trout Creek.

“In order to do the things we’re going to do in the future, we need these lease agreements,” said county Parks Director Brian Carroll.

The development of the camping facilities is in response to last year’s halt to dispersed camping along Quartzville Road, a longtime tradition for many vacationers who would fill wayside pull-offs with RVs and tents, despite the lack of facilities and the close proximity to a busy road. The Corps of Engineers, which controls the the narrow strip of land between Green Peter Reservoir and Quartzville Road, instituted the camping ban from Green Peter Dam to milepost 17.2, just beyond Trout Creek, due to concerns about sanitation, litter and pedestrian safety.

Carroll said he expects construction on the expansion of Whitcomb Creek from 39 to 90 sites, which will more than double the size of the campground, to begin this summer and be “partially” ready for use by the summer of 2016.

The Whitcomb Creek expansion will cost an estimated $655,000 and the county has received a $250,000 grant from state RV licensing fee funds to get that process moving, he said.

“That’s where we’re going to get the most bang for our buck early,” he added.

Trout Creek, which currently is basically a pull-off with a restroom and some fire rings, could be ready sooner, he said, but it depends on how things play out.

“It was never a formal camp,” Carroll said. “Dispersed camping was going on there. I don’t know if we can get Trout Creek open this summer, but hopefully we’ll open it by 2016, at the latest.”

Work on Quartzville Road, which has been in the planning stages for the past couple of years, is set to start this summer, County Engineer Chuck Knoll said last week.

The county has received a $7 million Federal Lands Access Program grant from the Federal Highway Administration, which will account for the bulk of the $8 million project, which is part of the Quartzville RecreationCorridor master plan approved in 2011.

Plans are to widen Quartzville Road from 22 to 30 feet and provide paved shoulders that will allow for safer pedestrian and bicycle travel, though, Knoll, said, there will not actually be bike lanes.

Also, pull-outs with restrooms and visitor kiosks will be constructed near Sunnyside Campground and at Green Peter Dam, along with a similarly equipped overflow parking area at the Thistle Creek boat ramp.

Also planned is stabilization of five slide areas and the painting of the 560-foot-long Whitcomb Creek Bridge, which is expected to begin this summer, Knoll said. Part of that project will include some off-sidewalk fishing portals on the north side of the bridge.

“We’ve done the design and we’ve gone out to bid,” he said. “You have to get approval of all the designs by the feds, make sure you follow all the steps. It’s quite an ordeal.”

He said that during surveys of Quartzville Road, the county discovered that the roadway is in the wrong place.

“When that road was built in 1960s, they didn’t build that road to plan,” Knoll said. “What we saw on the plans and what we surveyed wasn’t where supposed to be. We’ve worked with the Corps of Engineers, and they told us to adjust the right-of way.”

He noted that the county has also applied for FLAP funding to improve Foster Dam Road. Those plans include improving the road alignment, paving the parking area at Poplar Street, improving the crossing area at that location, and constructing a short section of bike lane to connect with improvements planned by the City of Sweet Home that would connect the parking lot area to Shea Point.

Construction work on Quartzville Road is expected to start in July, starting with the bridge, he said, with completion of the project in late 2016 “if all goes well.”

“It’s a big project,” Knoll said.

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