PHOTO BY JENNIFER COLTON
A recent project to improve the intersection of Powerline Road and Highway 730 in Umatilla has left elected officials shaking their heads.
The Umatilla City Council expressed its displeasure with the Oregon Department of Transportation’s project on Tuesday night.
“It is really bad,” Councilor Mel Ray said. “There are a multitude of issues.”
The US 730 Powerline Road Intersection Improvements Project was designed to increase safety at the intersection. Highway 730 – Sixth Street within city limits – is the main street in Umatilla, and Powerline Road is the primary access to the South Hill neighborhood and an alternate road to Hermiston. ODOT determined the intersection was too close to the west end of the Umatilla River Bridge, which caused “traffic stacking on the bridge” preparing to turn left onto Powerline Road.
“I didn’t think it was going to be so curvy,” Councilor Mary Dedrick said. “I can just see this winter if we have icy conditions … It’s not the way I thought it would be.”
Although city staff and elected officials agreed with the safety concerns and the general idea of the project, they had lengthy discussions with ODOT about adding curbs, gutters and sidewalks to the project. ODOT stated they did not have funding for the additions.
In January 2014, a Umatilla resident, John Nichols, told the council and an ODOT representative the project was “poorly planned and engineered.” During that meeting, ODOT and the council discussed the city adding sidewalks later when funding was available.
On Tuesday night, council members and city staff said with the height of the new road – requiring as much as 3 feet of backfill to add sidewalks – adding sidewalks would be almost impossible. Boyd Sharp, chairman of the Umatilla Planning Commission, said the work does not match a memorandum of agreement between the city and ODOT, and Umatilla Public Works Director Russ Pelleberg said the project is complete with the exception of a final walkthrough and cleanup work.
“The city was not kept in the loop at all during this construction phase,” Pelleberg said. “The plans I have – still stamped ‘preliminary’ – do not reflect what was built.”
