Document text
Part of a chip-seal project intended for three southwest Oregon highways has been canceled due to nearby wildfires. A 6.5-mile section of Highway 62 was scheduled for resurfacing this month between Trail and Casey State Park. Oregon Department of Transportation officials said they pulled the plug because of the Miles, Columbus, Snow Shoe and Round Top fires. “We’ve got fire crews using the highway to access Elk Creek Road, and you’ve got areas up there under evacuation notice,” said ODOT spokesman Gary Leaming. “Anything that we would have done up there would have added more delay. We decided to pull the project for this year.” Other highway stretches covered under the $2 million project included parts of the Elkton-Sutherlin and Powers highways, according to the ODOT website. Chip sealing involves spreading oil on pavement, then dropping rock chips onto the oil. The chips are packed down by rollers, and traffic packs it down further. The process is intended to extend the life of highways by about five or six years, Leaming said. “It’s about 30 percent of the cost of a more traditional grind inlay,” he said. Crews continue to work on the Miles, Columbus, Snow Shoe and Round Top fires. The Miles fire, which is the largest of the quartet at 25,874 acres, was 0 percent contained, according to fire public information officer Jake Hastings, but crews working overnight were able to prevent it from crossing Elk Creek Road. “They hit it hard with the helicopters in the drainage before it got too dark to fly,” Hastings said. The second-largest blaze, the Columbus fire, was 9,024 acres and 8 percent contained. That fire may soon be absorbed into the Miles fire, which would alter acreage and containment percentage. The Snow Shoe fire is 3,816 acres and 85 percent contained, and Round Top fire is 154 acres and 65 percent contained. Reach web editor Ryan Pfeil at [email protected] or at 541-776-4468.