August 7, 2019 3:30 a.m.
Interstate 5 motorists traveling between Tri City and Winchester can expect intermittent nighttime delays the next 3 months due to blasting work on Roberts Mountain.
Dan Latham of the Oregon Department of Transportation said Kerr Contractors of Woodburn are scheduled to begin blasting as early as Tuesday evening, August 13th. Latham said the work will usually involve one underground detonation a night, sometime between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Excavation may require a handful of blasts each week.
Rolling slowdowns will be used to create a gap in traffic during the blasting work. Most traffic delays will be about 10-20 minutes, according to Latham.
In the southbound direction, pilot cars will lead freeway traffic on a low-speed approach from the Winchester area to Roberts Mountain, which is a distance of eleven miles. Flaggers will hold traffic at each southbound on-ramp, from Edenbower Boulevard to the Oregon 42/Winston interchange.
Northbound rolling slowdowns will begin in Tri City with flaggers holding traffic at every interchange from Myrtle Creek/Weaver Road to Clarks Branch Road.
Latham said that roadside blasting typically produces noise and clouds of dust, but little flying debris. The nearby travel lanes are cleared as a safety precaution.
The Roberts Mountain blasting work will enable the contractor to excavate the slope on the west side of the freeway and construct a climbing lane on both the northbound and southbound approaches to the pass.
Latham said construction on the $26 million project began this spring and is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2021.
For more information go to www.robertsmountain.com.