Staff
Linn County Road Department last week started a comprehensive $5.3 million improvement project along the Quartzville Corridor, with fresh pavement, parking and more from Old Hufford Road to mile marker 12.
Initial miscellaneous projects began in April, before the main construction started on May 3. The contractor, Pacific Excavation, is scheduled to complete the project by Oct. 3. The project also has included the painting of Whitcomb Creek Bridge last year.
The project is a partnership among Linn County Parks Department, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Land Management, the Linn County Road Department and the U.S. Forest Service as a Quartzville Back Country Byway Federal Access and Safety Enhancement Project.
Improvements include widening the existing paved surface by 4 to 8 feet along the 22-foot roadway, allowing room for bicyclists, said Chuck Knoll, engineer with the Linn County Road Department.
The widening between Sunnyside Park and Green Peter Dam is scheduled for completion by May 26. Widening between Green Peter Dam and mile marker 12 is scheduled for May 18 to Aug. 18.
It will include three new parking areas, Knoll said, including lots at Sunnyside Park, Green Peter Dam and an overflow parking area at Thistle Creek Boat Ramp.
Sunnyside and Green Peter lots are scheduled for completion by May 26, while Thistle Creek will be under construction from May 18 to Aug. 18.
The asphalt overlay will occur from Old Hufford Road to mile marker 12 between Sept. 7 and Sept. 23. Paving at Whitcomb Creek Campground is scheduled for Sept. 7 to Sept. 30.
Pavement striping is scheduled from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 for the length of the project.
Along the way, crews will make some slide stabilization improvements, Knoll said.
“We’ve been in the process of designing and getting the contract for the past three years,” he said.
The project is funded through the Federal Lands Access Program by the Western Federal Lands Division of the Federal Highway Administration.
Elsewhere, the Linn County Road Department is planning improvements to Foster Dam Road.
Some guardrails need to be brought up to current safety standards, Knoll said.
Among the reasons, the guardrail is too low due to multiple layers of pavement that have eeb placed on the roadway. It will also be painted white and made reflective to provide better visibility.
The gravel parking lot at the intersection of Poplar Street and Foster Dam Road and the crossing to the lake needs to be brought up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards, he said.
The project will include a bike lane on the dam road and improvements to the geometry of the Poplar-Foster Dam intersection to help with trucks using it as an alternate route because they cannot fit under the railroad trestle on Main Street.
The parking area will be paved, and Foster Dam Road will get an asphalt overlay, Knoll said.
A multi-use path will be constructed on the west side of Foster Dam Road from the pedestrian crossing at 60th Avenue to Poplar Street to provide a connection to the Shea Point path to the parking lot and City of Sweet Home, to avoid the narrow section of Foster Dam Road with the highest traffic levels.
The project will cost $1.5 million, he said. Funding is available through a FLAP grant, like the Quartzville project. The project area begins where the sidewalk on 60th Avenue ends on the south end to North River Road on the north end.
Linn County Road Department is beginning the design phase, Knoll said. “If everything goes well we could get this out to bid next year.”
The project is funded for construction in summer 2018, Knoll said. It is possible for funding to be available earlier with construction in 2017, but most likely the project will be set for 2018.
Foster Dam Road is partially within the city limits, but it is maintained by the Linn County Road Department under a 1973 easement and maintenance agreement with the Corps of Engineers.
These projects are cooperative efforts with the Corps of Engineers, Knoll said. “They’ve been a great organization to work with.”