BEND, OR -- More traffic shifts are coming to Highway 97 on the north end of Bend. ODOT’s Kacey Davey says on Thursday, northbound traffic will move to a newly built section of the Parkway between Cooley and Grandview, "We’re not expecting it to cause any delays. It’s just a shift in traffic. So, people will move off the current road, they’ll shift a little bit over to the right and start driving on the new alignment, and tie back in around Grandview. But there’s no lights or detours or flaggers or anything like that."
She tells KBND News backups reported after last week’s change at the northbound onramp at Empire were caused by congestion and the signal at Robal Road. Those issues have eased, "The onramp basically had a light to be able to come on and off and that caused some delays. We adjusted the light timing at Robal to help with that, to allow more traffic to come in from that side. And also, people have adjusted; so our delays have gone down a lot." But, Davey says, drivers may still want to avoid that area, "You can go on Business 97 to 20, and then use the new roundabout to access it from that side. And that would eliminate having to use the light there at Robal, which still could see some backups during heavier traffic times, like after school or before or after work."
According to Davey, more lane shifts and traffic adjustments are coming, "We’re more than halfway done. We’re expecting all of this to be done by the end of the year. But right now is a really busy time when we’re moving some things around and starting work on things we previously haven’t worked on." She adds, "I tell folks to keep an eye - we have a project sign-up. So if you go to our project website, you can sign up for these traffic alerts, and you’ll be notified any time something changes in the area."
More blasting is also planned for near Empire this Saturday. Oregon Department of Transportation crews will blow up more basalt rock, forcing the closure of Highway 97 for a short time. "The last few blasts have only been closing the highway for about six or seven minutes, without too much of a backup at all," says Davey. That operation is scheduled for Saturday, sometime between 7 and 9 a.m.
