| OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program |
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| Web Brief (Oct 06) |
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The I-5 bridge over 16th Street in Cottage Grove
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Cooperation between ODOT, public and private-sector partners makes community outreach a success
Pre-construction open house in Cottage Grove
draws more than 70 participants
ODOT is committed to getting feedback from local residents and listening to their concerns about projects, but it is often a challenge to encourage community involvement.
In planning the Sept. 20 open house for an OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program project in Cottage Grove, ODOT staff knew public input was needed to best address sensitive aesthetic and mobility issues on Bundle A04, Interstate 5: Whiteaker Avenue—London Road. So, Region 2 and the Bridge Delivery Unit worked with the private-sector public involvement team to send invitations to every address and post office box in the Cottage Grove zip code, as well as to a list of stakeholders.
The effort paid off. More than 70 people attended to view the final design plans for the replacement of the London Road bridge over I-5 and the I-5 bridges over Main Street and repairs to the interstate bridges over Taylor Avenue, 16th Street and Landess Road.
Joe Harwood, Region 2 public information officer; Russ Olson, consultant project manager; and Don Angermayer, transportation maintenance manager for District 5 were among the ODOT employees joined by program management firm representatives and contractors to answer the public’s questions about detour routes and other aspects of upcoming construction.
“It was invaluable to have ODOT there to talk about nearby bridge and highway projects,” said Debie Garner, the public involvement consultant. “People always have questions about other construction taking place in their area, and the team was able to cover all their concerns.”
The $16.3 million project was designed to alleviate two problems. Once it is finished, truckers hauling manufactured homes from Oregon south to California will no longer have to detour through the city to avoid low freeway overpasses, and local roads will thus be easier to negotiate for city drivers.
The low vertical clearance of the London Road overpass—14 feet, 7 inches on the west side and 15 feet, 6 inches on the east side—is too low for trucks hauling Oregon-made manufactured homes to the California market. As many as 4,000 loads per year have to leave the freeway north of Cottage Groveland pass through downtown before returning to the freeway south of town.
When the new London Road bridge is done, the vertical clearance will be 17 feet, 6 inches, tall enough to accommodate most oversize loads.
“Oregon 99 doubles as Main Street in many communities in the Willamette Valley,” said Harwood. “ODOT doesn’t want to see mobile home movements on local roads; we’d rather see it on the interstates, where such traffic belongs.”
Some community leaders and elected officials had hoped ODOT could provide a full, new interchange—a ramp onto southbound I-5 and an exit from the northbound I-5 lanes onto local roads—to ease the flow of traffic. But the bridge program can spend OTIA money only on replacing rather than expanding existing interchanges. To address this local issue, ODOT has designed the replacement overpass to allow for a possible later addition of exit and entrance lanes.
“Cooperation between ODOT, the public and our private-sector partners is a key element in making this program successful,” Harwood said.
## ODOT ##
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