Starting Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. work will begin on the two failed culverts on Sauvie Island’s NW Reeder Road to stabilize the roadway and allow both lanes to reopen to traffic. The contractor for the project will need to keep one lane closed during these repairs. The temporary stoplight will remain in place for the duration of those repairs as well. Due to the accelerated schedule, the contractor will be unable to pave the roadway prior to reopening the road on Friday afternoon. Instead, the repaired roadway will be compacted gravel, much like it is today. County maintenance crews will monitor the condition of the road until asphalt work can be done.
Multnomah County has notified regulatory agencies of the need to perform these temporary emergency repairs outside of the in-water work window due to overcrowding and safety concerns last weekend. Crews will be working long hours to get these emergency repairs done and the goal is to be able to reopen the road to two lanes by the end of the day on Friday, July 1st.
Background:
Last month, Multnomah County sent out an alert, encouraging visitors to practice patience and expect delays on Sauvie Island due to a culvert repair project on NW Reeder Road, near the Reeder Beach RV Park and Country Store.
That portion of Reeder Road is reduced to one lane for work on an overpass spanning two culverts. To manage the new traffic flow, crews have also installed a temporary stoplight.
Earlier this year two culverts under the road partially collapsed. Multnomah County made initial repairs to the sinkhole in January and February.
Follow-up work to continue the temporary repairs could not start until mid-July, because of what’s called an in-water work window. That’s a timetable set by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife that spells out when crews are allowed to work in Oregon waterways and not disrupt fish and wildlife.
The full repairs should be made sometime in 2023.
For a look at the project, click to watch this public service announcement: /psa-reeder-road-culvert-replacement