Tear-down underway at ill-fated Wickiup Jct. overpass

It’s now been a year since the Oregon Department of Transportation halted construction of the ill-fated $17 million railroad overpass at Wickiup Junction in La Pine, after the heavy girders began sinking.

On Monday, under ODOT oversight, a Stayton contractor, Fairline Bridge Inc, started removing parts of the overpass.

NewsChannel 21 was told the beams need to be removed while ODOT continues to study the ground settlement issues. Once all necessary parts are removed, they’ll watch and measure what happens in the dirt and surrounding areas.

ODOT Region 4 spokesman Peter Murphy said they’re using this as a chance to learn about the area and how to move forward.

“This is an opportunity to learn about what the weight of this kind of material does to the geology down below,” said Murphy. “That’ll tell us facts about the earth movement below us, and with that we’ll be able to make a better plan for how to move forward.”

With the $3 million left over from the original budget, ODOT’s using more than $600,000 to remove the beams. Some of the funds will be used for striping and lighting to improve safety along the highway, and they’re hiring a consultant to help move forward with the safety project.

Murphy said the original, and continuing, goal of the project is safety for drivers on the highway.

“There’s still some balance in the budget, with which we’ll study more about traffic patterns and safety opportunities on the highway in the Wickiup Junction. So that’s the objective with the funds that are left over from the bridge project itself,” Murphy said.

Decisions on how to move forward may not be too far away. Murphy told NewsChannel 21, “As we bring the consultant aboard and look at more work we can do to keep this safety idea moving forward, we’ll be making decisions about that in the next few months — six months or so.”