Wildish Standard Paving Co. expects to get started in the next couple of weeks on two major irrigation canal bridge replacement projects on Highway 97 in Central Oregon, north of Bend and south of Madras.

The firm expects to break ground on the Ochoco Canal project, south of Madras, during the week of Oct. 11. The two bridges are located 12 and 16 miles south of Madras, at mileposts 105.4 and 108.9.

Crews anticipate working Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.., with intermittent night and weekend work possible. Motorists can expect delays of less than five minutes when traveling through this work zone.

The work on the $1.04 million project will occur in phases. During the first phase, crews will construct temporary detour lanes to the west of the existing bridges. Traffic is expected to be re-routed to the new, temporary detour lanes in November. During this traffic shift, crews will begin replacement of the two existing Ochoco Canal Bridges. Wildish anticipates opening the new bridges to motorists in February 2005.

Wildish expects to break ground on the Pilot Butte Canal Bridge Replacement Project during the week of Oct. 18.

The Pilot Butte Canal Bridge is located five miles north of Bend, at milepost 129.7. Work is expected to take place Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with intermittent night and weekend construction activity possible. During night and/or weekend work, contractor crews may reduce traffic from four to two lanes. During these times, flaggers will control motorist movements.

Crews will replace the existing bridge over the Pilot Butte Canal with a new bridge/subsurface culvert. During the first phase of construction, traffic will be shifted to the west side of the roadway, as crews replace the east side of the current bridge. Once completed, traffic will be switched to the newly constructed, east side of the roadway. This bridge replacement project is expected to be completed in late spring of next year.

The project is part of a $30.5 million contract awarded to Wildish Standard Paving to replace 11 bridges on Highways 26 and 97 and Oregon 224 and is funded by the Oregon Transportation Investment Act (OTIA) .

The Oregon Legislature created OTIA to repair and replace Oregon’s cracked and aging bridges. OTIA projects will enhance the safety, convenience and movement of traffic throughout the state of Oregon.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2004 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Oregon Press Releases, Top Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.