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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us January 12, 2006 Cars merge in a construction zone along Highway 99 in Talent , which is undergoing major improvements expected to last until the spring. But the southern Valley can look forward to a relatively construction-free 2006 according to the Oregon Department of Transportation. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings A cone-free summer ahead Highway 99 and Interstate 5 are slated for completion before summer, and no other big projects are on the horizon By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings The Interstate 5 reconstruction last summer caused countless car accidents and traffic delays. In town, there was the complete revamp of East Main Street that forced drivers to side streets. The year before, it was the summer of Siskiyou Boulevard construction, when the street was reopened for the Fourth of July parade, then closed again to finish the work. But that’s just how it goes. The onset of road construction migraines coincides with the summer sun for most motorists. Relax. Deep breath. For a year, at least, drivers in the Ashland area may be spared the headache. Plans to break ground on major projects in the south Valley during 2006 aren’t in the works, although the list of State Transportation Improvement Projects released by the state does include several smaller jobs in the area and the continuation of some work started last year. “Mostly what’s going to be happening this summer is utility projects,” said Jim Olson, the Ashland Engineering Services manager. A trio of projects in Ashland city limits will be put on hold for a year, according to Olson. Some funds designated to repave five blocks of A Street, four blocks of B Street and Granite Street from Nutley Street to its end were used for the work on East Main Street a year ago. So, aside from redoing sanitary sewer lines and water pipes under sections of those roads, the projects will be on hold for a while. That delay leaves the reconstruction of Creel Road between Talent Avenue and Highway 99 as the only significant work planned to start in the south Valley this year. But, even that project will wait awhile. Crews need to finish the massive Highway 99 headache started last summer. Hard as it may be to picture a landscaped thoroughfare replacing the potholes and construction cones now littering Highway 99 in Talent, word is the $5.7 million project should be finished by the end of spring. That work will add sidewalks and bike lanes, and raise street lights at the Rapp Road-Highway 99 meeting and the three-way intersection of Colver and Suncrest roads and the highway. Also this spring, I-5 will get its final layer of new pavement, because, well, the project didn’t finish in November as planned. That’s no surprise to drivers of Interstate 5 who have bumped over rutted briges all winter. Crews will lay the third 2-inch layer of asphalt to the roadway and smooth the transition from the interstate to the on and off ramps to finish the project. The work will only take place at night and only close one lane of traffic at a time. A plan to fix the rough bridge crossings as repaving wraps up is also in the works. “We want to get those bridges done in basically the March-April timeline,” Oregon Department of Transportation Project Information Specialist Gary Leaming said. However, the reconstruction of several local bridges off of I-5 may last into the fall. The good news is the Oak Street bridge, which closed to all traffic in fall 2005, at Eagle Mill Road should reopen before the summer. Finally, the really big project on the list for this year may not develop on paper in the next 12 months, much less at the hands of construction crews. Ongoing plans to build a new rest area along I-5 northbound have yet to finalize a location for the oasis, according to Leaming. The latest incarnation of the rest area is on ODOT property near milepost 12, just south of Ashland. ODOT purchased land there, but has not gotten an OK from the county to build in the area. That draft would bring passenger car traffic to the rest area and direct big-rigs to the Port of Entry at milepost 17.5, but nothing has been solidified yet and Leaming doesn’t expect the aging plan to spring to life any time soon. “It’s a placeholder,” Leaming said. More than a year down the road, locals can also look forward to the repaving of Siskiyou Boulevard from Walker Avenue to where it meets I-5 at exit 11. Plans for six smaller repaving projects in the city in 2007 are also on the list. But this year motorists in the Ashland area will experience something new: An orange-cone-free summer. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 225 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams