Work to resume on controversial stretch of Coast Range in Oregon

The Associated Press

5/22/2008

CORVALLIS, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Transportation and a contractor will resume rebuilding a seven-mile section of Coast Range highway that was halted over concern about landslides and erosion into salmon-bearing streams.

The project aims to straighten a 10-mile stretch of U.S. 20 between Newport and Corvallis. The new stretch will be wider and three miles shorter. It will bypass the town Eddyville and open the highway to more commercial traffic.

In March 2007, contractor Yaquina River Constructors asked the state to release or suspend its contract to build the road and eight bridges. Yaquina is a subsidiary of Granite Construction Inc., a California company that specializes in public works projects.

The company said it discovered deep, ancient landslides when it drilled bore holes, and any earth movement could reactivate them.

State officials said the company cleared more than 160 acres of ground, clear-cutting trees and chewing up the soil to get the stumps out but failed to control erosion that caused muddy water in the salmon streams when fall rains began.

To deal with potential landslides, the state agreed to put up $47 million more, raising the construction cost to $177 million, a transportation official said.

The contractor will contribute $8 million and $12 million in landslide mitigation costs, depending on when the project is finished.

Meanwhile, the Oregon State Police say they have sent the attorney general's office their findings from a probe of the project. The contractor has appealed a $240,000 in erosion penalties levied by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

And, in a case of the state government fining itself, the Department of Transportation has agreed to pay $15,000 of a proposed $90,000 fine imposed by the Department of Environmental Quality and work off the remainder by rehabilitating salmon habitat, transportation spokesman Joe Harwood said.

Officials say the agreement means work can resume in June, with completion in 2011.

"We needed to get back to work as soon as possible to take advantage of this construction season," said Bill McGowan, project principal for Yaquina River Constructors.

The landslide areas are to be buttressed by sandstone, shale and earth at the bottom of landslide areas, in some cases 40 or 50 feet underground.

McGowan said an agreement on the $240,000 fine is close and could involve environmental rehabilitation projects in the Yaquina River watershed.

"They are just appealing our finding of reckless conduct, which is an element in the civil penalty. They're not denying there were violations," said Jeff Bachman of the Department of Environmental Quality.

He said there were three instances of runoff pollution during the rainy winter of 2007-08.

"They did a pretty good job this winter," he said. "It was night and day, in terms of how well they were prepared for the rain."