7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2017
Culverts: Expect an increase in road projects in the future
Continued from Page 1A
varying levels of poor condi-
tions. But the issues with those
culverts are not as urgent as
the ones the state is experi-
encing, according to data from
multiple local public works
officials.
Other priorities
Mark Buffington, direc-
tor of the local ODOT region,
said reduced personnel over
the years have redirected pri-
orities away from culverts. As
a rule of thumb, the depart-
ment has tended to focus
its road maintenance efforts
toward the center of roads —
which create the most traffic
issues — before repairing the
edges. But while culverts may
be underground, drivers con-
stantly witness their effects
when a crack forms that spans
the road.
“Generally, crews look for
cracks, and there you’ll find
a culvert,” Buffington said.
“What we’ve discovered over
the years is culverts are pretty
important to the maintenance
of the road.”
When a culvert fails, it can
lead to fish-passage issues, as
well as safety hazards.
Depending on the sever-
ity of the failure and the cul-
vert’s location, ODOT prefers
to line the inside of the cul-
vert with plastic, which typi-
cally closes a portion of road
for a day. If not, the depart-
ment must replace it, often
resulting in multiple weeks of
road closure and significantly
higher costs.
“It’s really quite compli-
cated to do,” Buffington said.
In late 2015 and early
2016, the transportation
department spent roughly
$300,000 for an emergency
replacement of a culvert that
collapsed due to a flood, ren-
dering a stretch of state High-
way 202 just south of Ord-
way Lane impassable. The
project took weeks to com-
plete, forced drivers to take a
lengthy detour along Walluski
Loop and created friction
between ODOT and neigh-
bors, who were concerned
a new culvert would cause
the adjacent Youngs River to
flood their properties.
Though the new culvert
remains in place, effects of
the emergency replacement
persist.
Deteriorations of two
stretches on Walluski Loop
Road were expedited by
the heavier traffic from the
detour. In late June, Clatsop
County hired a contractor to
pave sections of road at a cost
of more than $114,000.
Long-term effort
Many of the culverts that
are failing were installed in
the 1950s and 1960s. Decades
later, ODOT does not know
exactly how many of them
lie under their roads. The
department is about halfway
through a six- to eight-year
effort to enter the culverts in
an online database using geo-
graphic information system
mapping, Buffington said.
The state Legislature’s
$5.3 billion transportation bill
may also be a step forward, as
30 percent of ODOT’s share
will be allocated to pavement
preservation and state high-
way maintenance.
In other words, expect an
increase in road projects.
“It’s part of the business,”
ODOT spokesman Lou Tor-
res said. “We’re going to
impact things. There’s no way
around it.”
ABOVE: According to in-
formation from the Oregon
Department of Transportation,
30 percent of culverts under
their highways in northwest
Oregon are in poor or failing
condition and efforts have
accelerated in recent years
to replace them. There are
826 culverts under state
highways in Clatsop County.
LEFT: According to ODOT,
many of the culverts that are
failing were installed in the
1950s and 1960s and they are
unsure just how many there
are under highways in north-
west Oregon.
Markings on a state highway in-
dicate where work on a culvert
needs to be performed as efforts
to replace aging infrastructure in
northwest Oregon has accelerat-
ed in recent years.
Photos by Colin Murphey
The Daily Astorian
Protecting Our Waters
22
for
7 YEARS
H ONORING
OUR U.S.
C OAST G UARD
AMBULANCE SERVICE, INC.
ON THEIR
227
TH
BIRTHDAY !
Locally Owned and Operated
Thank you for your service!
Local public affairs
Eclectic music
NPR
191 S. M AIN A VE .
W ARRENTON
503-861-2271
L IKE
US ON
WWW . MAINSTSELECT . COM
A
Thank you
for all you do!
ffordable
TOWING
& REPAIR
North Co. 503-458-5588
South Co. 503-338-6402
2325 SE Dolphin Ave.
Warrenton
503-861-5554
IN AN
EMERGENCY
CALL
911
2 4 H R S E RV I C E
s W hy
T hat’
re H ere!
W e’
With Appreciation for your selfless acts...
Happy 227th Birthday, US Coast Guard!
KMUN 91.9 FM
KTCB 89.5 FM
KCPB 90.9 FM
CoastRadio.org
Hours: Everyday 9 AM - 7 PM
Keith Klatt, MD
Sally Baker, PA-C
Mark Tabor, PA-C
A CCEPTING MOST
I NSURANCE ,
OHP & M EDICARE
20% C ASH D ISCOUNT
C latsop
D istributing
C ompany
503-325-0333
2 1 2 0 Exchange Street, Suite 111
Astoria, Oregon
www.urgentcarenwastoria.com
THANK
YOU for
safeguarding
our shores
1375 SE 12TH PLACE, WARRENTON • 503-861-4275
Clatsop Distributing Company distributes many Pacific Northwest brews