News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Plans to fix the notorious "Y" intersection of Highways 20 and 242 are on hold, probably for several years. The Oregon Department of Transportation wants to make certain any project would be compatible with a couplet.
ODOT identified the "Y" intersection as a safety project and $112,000 had been "programmed" to fix the intersection, according to ODOT planner Stephanie Popp. The project was supposed to be built this summer.
But proposed solutions exceeded available funds and required environmental planning with the Forest Service, which couldn't be accomplished in time, Popp said.
Two options had been proposed. One option created a cul-de-sac on Highway 242, closing the intersection and routing traffic down Hood Avenue.
But as that plan developed, Popp said, ODOT determined that Hood Avenue across Forest Service land would have to be brought up to state standards, with some corner radius changed. That pushed costs up to $200,000 and required new right of way acquisition from the Forest Service.
In addition, local business owners did not want to lose access from a major highway. Another option was proposed, which changed the "Y" intersection to a "T" intersection further west along Highway 20.
Popp said that option was feasible, but requires widening of Highway 20 to allow turn lanes and costs about $528,000.
A reporter asked Popp why compatibility with a couplet was considered the top priority for the project when a couplet is considered a low priority in the Sisters Transportation System Plan.
"I never said that," Popp replied.
However, in an internal e-mail communication, Popp wrote that she "was told (by ODOT managers) that 'the #1 criteria for this project is to make sure the solution is compatible with the couplet and then to make sure it is a good engineered design and no(t) to let outside comments direct the project.'"
Popp told The Nugget that what she meant was that the design must be consistent with the Sisters Transportation Plan -- a draft of which proposes a couplet as a future solution to Sisters' traffic problems.
Popp said the goal is to avoid building a project that would have to be ripped out, wasting the money invested.
Popp said the project "is not going away," but that it would have to go back into the "STIP" (State Transportation Improvement) process.
"Realistically, I'd say you are looking at two or three years," Popp said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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