‘Sometimes that traffic is wicked’: Bend road projects, detours lead to backups on other streets around town

Some are late for appointments; others like listening to music during extra time on the road

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Neff/Purcell intersection improvements project began in February. The work will widen the busy corner from three lanes to four, to improve traffic flow in the area. It's expected to be completed in the summer, and joins other projects around town that are resulting in detoured traffic making adjacent streets busier.

Take Division Street, for example, which has seen impacts for some time from ODOT's Third Street project and its resulting lane closures.

Erika Arbak is a Bend resident who often uses Division Street to get to work. She doesn't mind the wait, since she can listen to music during her commute: "Probably about 10 to 15 minutes (in traffic), which can be frustrating. But honestly, I like listening to music in my car, so it's not too much of a wait, or too much of a big deal for me."

Businesses on Division Street, such as High Ball Barber Shop, say that some customers have been late to appointments due to congestion at busy times of the day.

"I do know with the construction right now, certain times of the day are busier, and people are needing to use alternate routes, so they can use Division and sometimes it does get backed up" High Ball Division GM Trestin Amato told NewsChannel 21 Thursday.

"We have had people call and say, 'Hey I'm going to be a couple minutes late, there's extra traffic I have to go around the long way around here because of the backup" he said.

Congestion on Division Street is due to the continuing ODOT construction project on Business Highway 97 (Third Street) Two lanes have been reduced to one in places as they add bike lanes, improve sidewalks and upgrade some traffic lights. Some Bend drivers say congestion tends to be the worst on Division between noon and 2 p.m. and 5-7 p.m.

At Fyre Cannabis dispensary, they're being patient with the lengthy project, even though cars have at times been backed up, blocking access to their parking lot. Kevin McMahon, GM of Fyre, says that due to the business having a big parking lot, they haven't seen a drop in customers due to traffic.

"Our business has a very large parking lot so we have quite a few advantages over some other folks, but definitely, sometimes that traffic is wicked," he said.

According to the city of Bend, the Neff/Purcell improvement project is expected to be complete by the end of July.

ODOT's full project on Third Street is expected to be finished by mid-June. The phase of construction currently creating backups on Division Street is expected to be finished by mid-April.