Online tools help Bend travelers avoid construction delays

Peak season for road construction is April through October. If you drive anywhere in Bend, you’re likely going to run into it.

The city of Bend has put together information and tools online to help all of us travel through Bend this year as easily as possible.

The city puts out a weekly report with an interactive map. It’s intended to provide information about various projects within city limits that affect the roadways.

There’s also a street preservation project map. It outlines all the projects for 2019 and gives details on what’s happening at each project.

“There’s varying treatments, depending on the road. As a road ages over time, it becomes oxidized, brittle, starts to crack,” David Abbas, the city’s streets and operations director, said Monday.

“We really want to keep the moisture out of it, keep it a healthy road. It’d be kind of like painting your house. You want to put a coat of paint on the siding before it is rotten. Same thing with a road.”

There are three treatments shown on the map, in different colors. The orange color means inlays and overlays, which are a new layer of asphalt. The maroon color means a chip seal treatment. That’s a layer of chip rock and hot oil, and it’s intended for roads that see higher amounts of traffic.

The green color means slurry seal. It puts a seal on the road from curb to curb to keep it from oxidizing.