The Oregon Department of Transportation began work on the “U.S. 26 Mt. Hood Highway Safety and Preservation Project” last month, establishing a temporary work zone, reducing traffic to one lane and starting to remove trees and the overburden to prepare hillsides for
later excavations.

The project, expected to run between April and October through 2016, will
expand the highway and add a 1.6-mile concrete median barrier to prevent
crossover accidents.

Kimberly Dinwiddie, ODOT Community Affairs, noted the work has caused
some expected disruptions for members of the community and travelers, but
no major disruptions in the early going.

She reported that the high temperatures in mid July did not stop the work.
“Our crews are tough and they worked through it,” Dinwiddie said.“It’ll have
to be a really major event for us to pull work off of this project.”

Dinwiddie added one early aspect of the project includes trucks transporting
some of the material removed from the highway hillsides to Lolo Pass Road.

She is aware of the safety concerns, including pedestrians and bikers who use
the road, and noted the area where the material is being taken is the most
likely one ODOT will use ahead of winter weather, so it will be filled first.

Anna M’Kinne, who lives on Lolo Pass Road, expressed her concerns about the
lack of available information regarding the trucks, noting she was unaware of
the expected truck use and the increased danger to everyone who uses the
road.

“It is reasonable to expect advance access to information-data that we can
proactively use (if we choose) to do our best to stay safe,” she wrote in an e-
mail to the Mountain Times.

The trucks are expected to use Lolo Pass Road Monday through Saturday
during daytime hours, with no hauling on Sunday.

Similarly, trucks are expected to haul material on Trillium Lake Road to
another site during the weekdays, but ending at noon on Friday with no
further hauling over the weekend so as not to disturb campers.

Dinwiddie noted the project’s contractor, K&E Excavating, is expected to try
and limit the blasting of rock faces and utilize other methods of excavation
when possible.

“That’s better for everybody, it’s better for the community and travelers,”
Dinwiddie said, adding that it will be sometime in mid to late August when
blasting would begin.

K&E expects to complete work on most of the slopes on the north side of the
highway and attempt to start drainage work before work shuts down for the
winter months, according to Dinwiddie.

Dinwiddie reported early traffic delays on Hwy. 26 in the 10-minute range, but
she expects when the blasting begins it will lead to road closures of up to one
hour between 5:30-7:30 p.m. on up to three days per week from Monday
through Thursday.

Traffic will back up for approximately one and one-half miles in the eastbound
direction (but traffic is not expected to reach Rhododendron) and
approximately one mile in the westbound direction.

Hoodland Fire District Chief Mic Eby has driven through the construction zone,
but did not experience any delays.

He does have concerns about potential delays to accidents on the east side of
the project when the blasting occurs and will request a system to notify ODOT
when HFD responders are heading up the mountain to stop blasting and allow
safe and quick passage through the construction zone.

For more information, please visit the website us26mthoodsafety.org and
tripcheck.com.