Squaw Creek deluge forces bridge work

Heavy Thanksgiving rain drenched Sisters and turned Squaw Creek into a torrent that eroded the river bank near the main highway bridge west of town.

The erosion was reported early Friday morning, according to Dave Neys, maintenance manager with the Bend District (which includes Sisters) of the Highway Division of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).

Neys said that the erosion was discovered as part of routine bridge inspection following the rain.

"The water was eating away the bank behind the 'wing wall' to the approach of the bridge," Neys said.

The decision was made to move large boulders, three feet in diameter, from the Highway 97 Crooked River Bridge construction site as "riprap" to shore up the river bank. ODOT then went looking for a piece of equipment with a "thumb" that could carefully place the boulders in the stream.

Barclay Contractors of Sisters had what was needed.

Getting the boulders to Sisters was another challenge.

"All of our ODOT trucks have sanders mounted on them for winter," Neys said. ODOT did have one in the repair shop and another in Prineville. Barclay Contractors had one truck available immediately and could get another in an hour, and Deschutes County had three trucks standing by.

Initially Neys thought that five or six loads would be adequate; each round-trip took about one and one-half hours.

"The first three-foot boulders we put in there just disappeared," said Neys. Eventually, about 30 loads were brought to fill the eight-foot-deep, 10-foot-wide and 100-foot-long gouge, according to Neys.

ODOT also placed riprap around a pine tree after the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife asked if it could be saved to provide shade for the stream.

Neys said that Squaw Creek was the only waterway in Central Oregon that had any flooding. It didn't rain as much in other locations in Central Oregon, he said.