A multimillion-dollar transportation project began with a groundbreaking ceremony Monday morning as Gov. Ted Kulongoski, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio and several representatives from the Oregon Legislature opened the Interstate-5/Beltline Highway Interchange Project.
The project is intended to improve safety and the flow of traffic at the I-5/Beltline Highway interchange and to support growing traffic in the area. Two phases are currently planned for the project, which will cost a total of $113 million.
“What this project does, in addition to strengthening the operational safety efficiencies of this particular interchange, is this links Eugene and Springfield to the major economic arterial in the state of Oregon, and that’s I-5,” said Doug Tindall, deputy director of the Oregon Department of Transportation.
The first phase of the project, which is expected to cost $72.5 million, will build a new 2,400-foot-long, two-lane overpass to connect northbound traffic on I-5 to Beltline Highway. Other additions in the phase will include a new lane for westbound traffic on Beltline Highway that will stretch from I-5 to Coburg Road, replacements of bridges over Game Farm Road, and a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge over I-5. The first phase is expected to be completed in December 2008.
The second phase of the project will install soundwalls along the west side of I-5 to shield adjacent residences from highway noise, a new ramp from I-5 southbound to westbound Beltline, and a completely rebuilt intersection of Beltline and Gateway Street.
Both Kulongski and DeFazio said at the ceremony that population and business growth in the area necessitated the construction and repairs to the roads.
“It’s been dangerous for quite some time, and it’s way over capacity,”
DeFazio said. “With the hospital and the other development that’s going on, this is going to be an incredibly stressed point for the transportation system in the area.”
When the I-5/Beltline Highway Interchange was built in 1968, it handled less than 21,000 trips per day, according to project documents. The current count is 93,000 day, with an estimated increase to 115,000 by 2015.
Public Information Officer Joe Harwood said it wouldn’t be too much to expect that in 20 years, the number of daily trips could range from 125,000 to 135,000 per day.
Oregon’s decade-long, $3 billion upgrade program known as the Oregon Transportation Investment Act, which provides funding for various bridge and road projects throughout the state, is providing about 70 percent of the funding for the first phase. DeFazio, D-Springfield, who serves on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, procured $23 million for both phases of the project using funding from two highway bills passed in the U.S. Congress.
DeFazio said it was easier to get federal money for the project after the Oregon Legislature agreed to fund two-thirds of it.
“They could see that we’re not just there for a handout,” he said.
Oregon Transportation Commissioner Randy Pape said that most of the construction will be done during off-peak hours to prevent traffic delays, and that reduced speed zones will be put in place.