Airport Way reopens; RR crossing work done a day early

(Update: Crossing work completed; Airport Way reopens)

A railroad crossing maintenance project that was to close the main road to Redmond Municipal Airport for three days was wrapped up a day early, as Southwest Airport Way reopened Thursday afternoon, much to drivers’ and city officials’ relief.

Close the main route to a region’s airport — for however long and whatever reason — and traffic headaches are bound to ensue. And that’s just what happened Wednesday on the south side of Redmond as the BNSF Railway crossing work got underway.

The city said Specialty Asphalt was doing the work for BNSF, starting at 7 a.m. Wednesday and expected to last through 6 p.m. Friday. A company representative tld the city Thursday they were able to expedite the work and have it completed by mid-afternoon.

Redmond Airport Director Zachary Bass said Wednesday he had not seen a main access road to the airport be shut down like this before.

“Yeah, truthfully, I’ve been here about five years, and this is the first I’ve seen that they closed down Airport Way for the access to Highway 97,” he said. “Because it’s the railroad, hopefully it only occurs once every ten years.”

According to Redmond City Transportation, Southwest Airport Way sees around 3,000 cars a day.

A detour was in place, shifting drivers to Veterans Way. All traffic east of the tracks needs to use Veterans Way or Evergreen Avenue to get around the closure.

“The intersection of South Highway 97 and SW Veterans Way is very congested as a result of the increased traffic,” Chambers said in a Facebook post Wednesday af ternoon.

Bass said the construction couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“July, August and September are our busiest times for travel. It’s currently very busy,” Bass said.

BNSF has been moving through the region, doing railroad crossing upgrades in recent weeks.

A similar closure took place Monday and Tuesday at SE Evergreen Avenue (state Highway 126) at the railroad crossing.

City construction projects that shut down main roads usually only close them for a few hours or a day at most, Redmond Transportation Streets Operation Manager Brad Haynes said.