Convenience concerns

As it always does this time of year, traffic has picked up on Highway 99 past the Totem Market in Winchester.

Summer is the convenience store’s prime sales period and owner Steve Agee depends on the increased business to tide him over during the slow winter months.

Next Monday, the line of cars passing his store will likely slow to a trickle following the closure of the historic Winchester Bridge. The bridge, built in 1924 and designed by famed Oregon bridge designer Conde McCullough, will be closed to all traffic through next April.

For Agee and owners of other small businesses located just south of the narrow, two-lane bridge, the 900-foot arched span provides needed access for their customers. With the bridge closed, motorists heading toward Winchester from north of the bridge will be forced to use Interstate 5 and Northeast Stephens Street to reach those businesses, adding about four miles to a one-way trip.

Agee doesn’t believe that his lunchtime customers from Bayliner and FCC Commercial Furniture, both of which are located north of the bridge, will go to that much trouble just to patronize his store for the next several months.

“We’re anticipating a fairly steep drop in business,” said Agee, who has owned the Totem Market since 1980.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is having the bridge widened to make it so two-way traffic can cross the bridge safely at all times. Currently, commercial trucks and buses have to stop at one end of the bridge and let all traffic cross before moving forward. Some motorists are fearful meeting other cars because of the narrowness of the bridge.

Traffic lanes across the bridge will be widened from 9 feet to 12 feet. Three-foot bicycle lanes, along with sidewalks, will also be added.

The $9.9 million project will also involve replacement of the decorative bridge side rails, repair of the beams and columns underneath the structure. The curve on the north end of the bridge will be softened to improve the safety for vehicles entering and exiting the bridge.

The beauty of the bridge won’t be affected, however, ODOT project manager Ted Paselk said.

“It’s going to look very similar architecturally,” Paselk said. “To be able to retrace Conde McCullough’s steps is nice. He built a lot of bridges. This was one of his first, so it makes it all the more significant.”

Crews have already been working to build a work platform underneath the bridge. They have also relocated phone lines and a sewer pipe attached to the east side of the bridge. A temporary parking area for visitors to the Winchester Dam fish viewing area has also been erected.

When the bridge is closed off at 12:01 a.m. Monday, only construction work crews will be allowed to access the structure. No vehicular or pedestrian traffic will be allowed across the bridge. Removal of the bridge’s side rails would make that too dangerous, ODOT spokesman Jared Castle said.

Douglas County Fire District No. 2 has established a temporary fire station south of the bridge. A fire engine, an ambulance and a wildland brush firetruck will be located at the makeshift station, set up in a garage available behind the Winchester Deli, just off Highway 99.

The fire department brought in a modular trailer for firefighters to work and sleep in. It was placed next to the garage and will be manned by two firefighters 24 hours a day. The department’s regular Winchester station north of the Umpqua Community College campus will remain open and will send backup crews to assist any calls handled by the temporary station.

An ambulance from the main station will be used to transport any patients who need to be taken to the hospital. That will allow the ambulance at the temporary station to be available for other calls.

Without the temporary station, response times would increase considerably and the potential danger would increase, Capt. Roger Johnson said.

“A fire could double in a couple of minutes. Adding eight or nine minutes could have devastating results,” Johnson said.

Last week, District No. 2 firefighters visited the bridge to look over the construction platform and to get acquainted with the job site in case they were called out in the event of an accident involving the repair crew.

So you know ... Adjustments to bus routes operated by Umpqua Transit have been made ahead of next week’s closure of the Winchester Bridge. Starting Monday, buses began bypassing the historic bridge on both northbound and southbound routes. Officials wanted passengers to get used to the changes ahead of the closing of the bridge next Monday, said Sande Dixon, Douglas County’s transit director. Buses will no longer make the four stops between the bridge and Hooker Road: Winchester Post Office, Log Cabin Grocery, the Buckaroo Barn and Saddle Butte Mobile Manor. Instead, two temporary stops have been added on Hooker Road, a flag stop (where the bus stops if someone is waiting or needs to get off) by the Lowe’s store and a fixed stop at Keller Lumber. Buses that have traditionally headed over the Winchester Bridge to and from the Umpqua Community College campus will instead use Interstate 5 to bypass the construction zone through April 2008. Buses headed north on the Roseburg route will leave Keller Lumber hourly at 28 minutes after the hour between 7:28 a.m. and 6:28 p.m. and arrive at UCC 11 minutes later. Buses going south will leave one minute after the hour from 7:01 a.m. to 6:01 p.m. Commuter routes traveling between Sutherlin, Roseburg and Winston will also be affected by the change. Updated schedules are available online at www.umpquatransit.com. Information: Umpqua Transit at 440-3587.

Johnson said he believes once the repairs are finished, the bridge will attract added motorists.

“A lot of people who don’t use that bridge now will start driving on it, I think,” he said.

ODOT recently mailed out an information sheet to Winchester residents and business owners providing them with an update on the project. A similar handout will be mailed out monthly throughout the project.

The two-page sheet also shows the location of several businesses — the Totem Market, the Winchester Beauty Salon, the Winchester Deli, North River Retreat Day Spa and Salon, the Del Rey Cafe and the Log Cabin Grocery — affected by the bridge closure. Coupons for the businesses were included.

Lori Kibbey, who lives in a mobile home within eyeshot of the bridge, said she looks forward to the repair project. Kibbey, who works at the Roseburg Valley Mall, said she won’t mind spending a few more minutes driving to work each day on Highway 99 rather than heading north on the bridge and then heading south on I-5.

Widening the bridge will make it much safer, she said.

“About once a week, I hear people scraping their (car) mirrors. It’s a regular occurrence,” Kibbey said. “After it’s completed, people will be able to walk across it without fear. That will be nice.”



• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.