After months of planning, environmental studies and construction, an ambitious and occasionally controversial project to lay 3,020 feet of pipeline in a canal in southeast Bend is nearing completion.

Last week, contractors working for the Central Oregon Irrigation District placed the last of more than 60 segments of high-density, 12-foot diameter polyethylene pipe in the canal, one of the final steps toward completing the approximately $5 million project off Brookswood Boulevard.

While scheduling conflicts and inclement weather threatened to delay the project, Larry Roofener, field representative for the irrigation district, said he’s confident the project will be complete by April 9, the start of the district’s irrigation season.

“It’s going to be tight, but I think we’ll make it,” Roofener said.

The project is part of a larger effort by the district to replace its open canals with pipes, a move the district says will conserve up to 50 percent of the water in the irrigation system from evaporation and seepage. At the height of the season, late summer, Roofener said up to 150 cubic feet per second will flow through the pipe.

Because $1.4 million of the project’s price tag came from U.S. Bureau of Reclamation grants, the project required a federal environmental analysis, in accordance with the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1970.

If the project was determined to have significant impacts to the environment, cultural resources, or animals protected under the Endangered Species Act, it would have triggered a longer environmental process, forcing the project to be delayed by up to a year.

Several Bend residents living near the project said the federal analysis was rushed, and failed to take into account input from the community.

Despite the objections, the project broke ground in January. Roofener said the project used pipe produced by a company based in Saskatchewan, which he said caused several small communication issues around the delivery of the pipe. He added that portions of the bottom of the canal, which was initially constructed near the beginning of the 20th century, needed to be rebuilt.

Once the pipe arrived, workers used heavy machinery to lower individual segments into the excavated canal. From there, workers walked inside of the pipe to weld segments together, according to Shon Rae, deputy managing director for the irrigation district.

Meanwhile, rock from the surrounding area was hauled to a different part of the property to be crushed and used to backfill the remainder of the canal. For the project to be considered complete by April, Roofener said the pipe needs 2 feet of gravel around it. He estimated that about 40 percent of the piped area had been filled in as of Friday afternoon.

“That’s their primary focus at this point,” Roofener said.

Rae added that a crane was brought in to finish building a large concrete outflow structure, on the eastern edge of the Brookswood bridge. Rae noted that the concrete, which was poured earlier in March, needs several weeks to cure before water can flow through the structure. Roofener added that the concrete will be tested prior to use to ensure it has set sufficiently.

Rae said the irrigation district built penalties into its contract with the general contractor on the project, LaDuke Construction LLC, should the company fail to complete the project by the start of irrigation season, though she believes the project will be complete by then.

By May, Rae said she expects the pipe to be fully covered with topsoil. Once that portion of the project is complete, the Bend Park & Recreation District will begin work on a 10-foot-wide pedestrian and bike crossing under Brookswood, just north of Rock Bluff Lane.

The park district expects the project, part of a larger trail system that would replace the informal trail along the canal, to cost between $280,000 and $300,000. Laura Underhill, park planner and project manager for the park district, added that trail grading is likely to begin this week.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com