The Oregon Department of Transportation intends to complete the road reconstruction and paving portion of Philomath’s Downtown Safety and Streetscape Project before the end of the month, officials said.
Although Philomath residents and businesses will certainly welcome a return to normalcy within those sections of Main and Applegate streets, the project as a whole will extend into this fall.
That’s the word from Mindy McCartt, ODOT public information officer, who gathered information from the resident engineer and others this week to provide an update on the project’s status.
Motorists who have driven Main Street recently will have certainly noticed that paving started within that section of the project area. Meanwhile, on Applegate, road grade work continues in the north lane.
“They want to get the west end of Main Street all done while prepping Applegate for the final paving in the next couple of weeks,” McCartt said Wednesday afternoon. “That’s really great news that the paving portion of this project is a couple of weeks away.”
Other components of the $18 million project include the installation of new sidewalks, accessible ramps, irrigation and landscaping, streetlights, trash cans, benches, striping and a two-way bike lane along a stretch of Applegate Street. Some of that work is done but much of it remains to be completed beyond the end of the road reconstruction and paving.
“Once they get all of this paving done, though, the community is going to feel a little bit more at ease, I believe, because you’re going to see less traffic impact,” McCartt said.
Corpac is the lead contractor on the project, which started in November 2022. The contract for the job expires at the end of August.
“They’ve asked for an extension,” McCartt said. “I think that the end date now is hopefully by the end of September for the majority of the work.”
Added McCartt, “At the end of the day, we’re going to give it (the extension) to them because we’ve got to get the work done.”
Penalties can be assessed on a contractor for going past a job’s contract expiration date. McCartt said she talked to Markus Schaaf, assistant resident engineer, about whether or not that could be the case on this project.
“There can be extenuating circumstances for why they wouldn’t get a penalty past the contract but he doesn’t know that for sure,” McCartt said.
The project has experienced construction delays that have seemingly become the norm in the post-pandemic world — early on there were some issues with staffing by the contractor. But ODOT hopes the worst of that is in the past.
“Philomath is just a great thoroughfare to get to the Coast and I know the community and the businesses in the area really look forward to that summer season with travelers stopping and grabbing a burger or filling up on gas,” McCartt said. “But hopefully we’re going to get it right and this is going to help improve travel through that community for many, many years.”
