6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
PART OF $30 MILLION PROJECT ALONG INTERSTATE 84 IN LADD CANYON
Creek getting a new channel
■ Workers need to relocate a 4,500-foot section of the stream to make it possible
to build a third eastbound lane on the freeway as it climbs out of Ladd Canyon
■ Governor says there wasn’t
enough support for changes to the
measure; GOP leaders say it’s a ‘lost
opportunity’ for victims
By Dick Mason
The (La Grande) Observer
LA GRANDE — Brush
Creek, located near where the
Oregon Trail ran more than
150 years ago in Ladd Can-
yon, is getting a new 4,500-
foot channel, one stronger
than the oxen pioneers used
to pull their wagons over this
area’s rugged terrain.
The channel is being in-
stalled as part of the Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion’s $30 million Ladd Can-
yon Freight Improvement
Project, which began in April.
The new channel is needed
to make way for the addition
of a third eastbound lane
on I-84 in 2020, which will
run from the west entrance
of Ladd Canyon east for 1.5
miles.
Brush Creek is posing an
obstacle for ODOT because
a portion of it runs along the
area where the new lane will
be built. ODOT is thus taking
steps to move the lower part
of Brush Creek’s channel to
the north side of I-84’s east-
bound lanes.
Almost all of the new chan-
nel, now partially complete,
will have a concrete stream-
bed and concrete banks and
weirs. The concrete struc-
tures, except for the weirs,
will not be visible because
it will be covered with fi ll
dirt and gravel, said ODOT
spokesman Tom Strandberg.
The channel’s weirs are
meant to make it easier for
fi sh to swim up Brush Creek.
“It will look similar to a fi sh
ladder,” Strandberg said.
He said the fi sh ladder is
needed because otherwise
fi sh might face a current that
would be too hard to swim
uphill against.
The new channel’s weirs
will be designed so that fi sh
can easily jump over them
and spaced so that they will
create small pools the fi sh can
rest in before their next leap.
The new channel’s concrete
lining will also allow the
lower portion of Brush Creek
to retain woody debris and
other natural fi sh habitat ele-
ments, said Chuck Longfi eld,
a senior inspector for ODOT.
Work on the Brush Creek
project is set to be completed
this fall. Brush Creek will
then be diverted to the new
channel, which will run to
Exit 270 where it will fl ow
into Ladd Creek, Strandberg
said.
The reconfi guration of
Brush Creek is part of
Phase I of the Ladd Canyon
Freight Improvement Project.
Another major portion of
GUNS
Continued from Page 3A
“In the case of my son Will,
it was a decision that we’ll
never be able to take back,”
Manstrom said at a news con-
ference in the state capitol. “If
a loaded gun was not easily
accessible to him that night,
I believe he would be with us
today.”
Kemp’s brother-in-law was
killed by a gunman who had
stolen an AR-15 from an ac-
quaintance. The gunman also
killed a woman and seriously
wounded a third person at
the Clackamas Town Center
near Portland before killing
himself.
“The legal gun owner didn’t
tell police his guns were miss-
ing until (the mall attack)
was national news,” Kemp
said.
Three state lawmakers,
also appearing at the news
Brown won’t
call special
session to
change death
penalty bill
By Claire Withycombe
Oregon Capital Bureau
Dick Mason / The (La Grande) Observer
Excavation work is being done in Ladd Canyon outside of La Grande for a new chan-
nel for Brush Creek. The channel is being installed as part of the Oregon Department of
Transportation’s $30 million Ladd Canyon Freight Improvement Project, which began in
April. The new channel is needed to make way for the addition of a third eastbound lane
on I-84 in 2020, which will run from the west entrance of Ladd Canyon east for 1.5 miles.
“It’s been a fun project.
We are involved in a lot of
stuff we don’t see at other
projects.”
— Chuck Longfi eld,
senior inspector, Oregon
Department of Transportation
the phase involves removing
an eastbound lane bridge
near the entrance into Ladd
Canyon and replacing it with
a concrete box culvert. The
box will be large enough to
accommodate log trucks and
semitrucks.
The bridge has already
been removed and about half
the box culvert has been com-
pleted, Strandberg said.
Moving the old bridge out
will improve safety for motor-
ists because it tended to get
icy.
“It will reduce the chronic
freezing problem,” Strandberg
said.
He said bridges usually
freeze fi rst in cold conditions
because they are sandwiched
between cold air. The adjacent
roadway by contrast freezes
later since only its top surface
is exposed to frigid air and its
bottom is insulated by soil.
The new culvert will not get
as icy as quickly because it
will have ground insulation.
Phase I work that has
already been completed
includes repaving Exit 265
near the west entrance into
Ladd Canyon and expanding
the shoulders of the east-
bound and westbound lanes
of the 10-mile stretch of I-84
between La Grande and Ladd
conference, vowed to push a
bill in next year’s legislative
session that would enact the
same storage requirements.
If it passes, it would render
any ballot initiative moot. But
if the bill fails, the measure
would have a second chance
by going directly to voters in
November.
Anderman said putting
anything between a person’s
impulse to take their own life
and a gun could give the per-
son a moment to reconsider.
Suicides account for 85%
of gun deaths in Oregon, said
one of the lawmakers, Rep.
Alissa Keny-Guyer, a Port-
land Democrat. The national
rate is around 66%, Ander-
man said.
Safe storage could also
reduce the number of school
shootings because most
minors who commit those
attacks obtain the gun from
their home or the home of
Dick Mason / The (La Grande) Observer
Tom Strandberg, foreground, and Josh McCullough,
both of the Oregon Department of Transportation,
examine a site where fi sh from Brush Creek are being
protected while channel work is done.
Canyon.
Expanding the shoulders
is providing more space for
drivers to pull over during
emergencies, making it less
likely they will accidentally
drive off the freeway and lose
control, Strandberg said. Now,
when ODOT has to close an
eastbound or westbound slow
lane between La Grande and
Ladd Canyon to do main-
tenance work, traffi c can
be diverted to the fast lane
because of the extra freeway
space.
All Phase I work on
the Ladd Canyon Freight
Improvement Project will
be completed by the end of
October. Phase II work, which
will conclude the construction
of the third eastbound lane,
will start in April of 2020.
Strandberg said the
expanded space the new lane
will provide should reduce
the number of times Ladd
Canyon has to be closed due
to trucks blocking lanes. He
explained that if a truck
crashes in the future three-
lane roadway, traffi c will be
able to move around it while
it is being cleared. Truck
drivers will be allowed to use
only the inner and middle
lanes while automobile driv-
ers will be permitted to drive
in all three, Standberg said.
The three-lane stretch will be
similar to a westbound one
near Spring Creek on I-84,
which has been in place since
2015.
Longfi eld said being a part
of the Ladd Canyon Freight
Improvement Project is
proving to be fulfi lling and
enjoyable.
“It has been a fun project,”
he said. “We are involved in
a lot of stuff we don’t see at
other projects.”
a family member or friend,
Anderman said.
A safe-storage law “can
really address a whole host of
gun-related harm,” she said.
A fi rearms storage bill
was packaged with other
gun-control measures during
Oregon’s 2019 legislative ses-
sion that ended in June.
There were some vocal
opponents.
“I want to be able to defend
myself and family without
asking the perpetrator to stop
until I unlock my gun,” Jef-
frey Slaughter, of Woodburn,
told lawmakers. Others spoke
of infringement on gun rights.
The gun-control effort was
scrapped by Democrats in
order to lure back Republican
senators who had staged a
walkout over a school funding
tax.
After the news conference
Wednesday, supporters de-
livered the signatures to the
elections offi ce. To win a place
on the 2020 ballot, 112,020
valid signatures of voters
must be turned in by July 2.
Baker & Union Counties
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Gov. Kate Brown will not call a special session to
change a controversial bill limiting the state’s death
penalty before the law takes effect on Sept. 29.
Senate Bill 1013, which lawmak-
ers approved this year, changed when
prosecutors can charge someone with
aggravated murder — the only charge in
Oregon for which the death penalty can
be sought. During legislative hearings,
Brown
lawmakers supporting the bill said it
wouldn’t apply to old cases where de-
fendants had already been sentenced. But, after the
legislative session ended, the Oregon Department of
Justice said the law could apply to people on Oregon’s
death row who have been granted a new trial on ap-
peal.
Brown said in late August that she would call a
special session if lawmakers could round up support
for a change to clarify the law. But by Wednesday
evening, Sept. 18, it was apparent that there wasn’t
enough support for that change, she said.
“While it is clear there is a misunderstanding
regarding the intent of the words in Senate Bill 1013,
it is also clear there is not suffi cient support for a
special session to pass a fi x,” Brown said in a Sept.
18 statement, as lawmakers wrapped up three days
of interim committee meetings at the Capitol. “When
announcing my support for a special session, I said
that it was conditional on stakeholders and legislators
crafting bill language that had the votes to pass. That
has not been achieved.
“I cannot justify the additional cost and time a
special session requires without that support, and I
will not be calling the Legislature into a special session
this month before the law goes into effect,” Brown said.
A ‘lost opportunity’
Late last month, Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene,
said he sought a change to the law to have it apply
only to offenses committed on or after Sept. 29, 2019,
when the law takes effect. Reached after the gover-
nor’s announcement, Prozanski said that a special
session to pass the tweak had support in the Senate,
but not in the House.
“When we are faced with these type of situations,
we look at it, we measure it, and then if we determine
that something needs to be done, that we are willing
to put politics to the side and actually fi nish and make
certain that the policy we actually passed is actually
interpreted the way we intended it to be,” Prozanski
said of his colleagues in the Senate. “We were not will-
ing to play the politics that apparently is being played
in the House.”
Brown’s announcement was met with criticism
from Republicans. “I am disappointed the governor
did not take the opportunity to call lawmakers into
session to fi x the bungled death penalty bill,” tweeted
new House Republican Leader Christine Drazan.
“This was a lost opportunity to protect victims’ fami-
lies, achieve a bipartisan solution and uphold the will
of the voters.”
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