Deschutes Market-Hamehook Road intersection about to get a roundabout, safety improvements

Traffic on the rise at busy T-intersection just east of Bend

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- An increasingly busy intersection just east of Bend is getting a big upgrade to boost safety and handle the traffic, with one big, familiar addition -- a roundabout.

The $2.2 million project, now out to bid, as at the intersection of Deschutes Market and and Hamehook roads.

Thousands of drivers use the intersection daily. Right now, it's a T-intersection with a stop sign.

"Deschutes Market Road is becoming a pretty busy county arterial on the east side of Bend," county Road Department Director Chris Doty said Friday. "We're seeing a lot of traffic volume increase. We need to make an improvement there, to increase safety and capacity for commuters." 

Doty said the project has been a part of the county's capital improvement plan for at least a decade. 

While the overall project just went out to bid, Robinson Brothers Construction's Brad Thorsted explained what crews were working on there on Friday. 

"We're moving the telephone (lines) out of the way for the new roundabout and the canal crossing at the junction here," Thorsted said.

Doty explained that this is just the beginning, with much more work to come. 

"The construction that'll start next week is an irrigation canal crossing that we need to put in place before the irrigation season starts in mid-April," he said.

Thorsted added, "Knife River will come in and put a new pipe across the road here, and then they will start the roundabout after that."

Doty said the work on the irrigation canal will require a one-week closure.

"The detour will take people from Deschutes Market to the east down Hamehook and then back to Butler Market Road or any other location that a driver needs to go to," he said.

The changes also include a single-lane roundabout.

"The actual roundabout project will start probably late March time frame, to last through the summer," he said.

The roundabout will be accompanied by new signs and lights, with room for pedestrians and cyclists to get around. 

"It's a rural roundabout," Doty said. "It's slightly different than what you see from the other city roundabouts."

You can learn more at this county web page: https://www.deschutes.org/road/webform/deschutes-market-rdhamehook-rd-intersection-improvement-project