A massive transportation funding package approved last year by the Oregon Legislature will give Bend the money it needs to improve traffic and safety at the congested intersection of U.S. Highway 97 and Cooley Road — a $50 million fix the city settled on more than a decade ago.

But as the Oregon Department of Transportation gets closer to designing the intersection improvements, local leaders are starting to question whether those planned changes are too little, too late.

City and county leaders sent the transportation department a letter earlier this month asking it to consider an interchange north of Cooley Road instead of simply designing the high-capacity traffic signals envisioned when Deschutes County had 20,000 fewer people.

“It was a solution proposed for 10 years ago,” said Tony DeBone, chairman of the Deschutes County Commission. “Now we’re at a spot where we have more activity.”

DeBone represents the county on the Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization, the regional board that oversees transportation policy in the Bend-Redmond area and sent the letter. He said commissioners had passed on an interchange concept about five years ago because the county was still coming out of the recession and wasn’t sure if there would be funding for it, but it’s now time to look for the next solution.

The transportation department and the city of Bend should know by this summer whether they’ll receive $60 million to $70 million through a federal grant for a larger project in north Bend. That project would ultimately shift the Bend Parkway between Empire Avenue and the northern city limits east and repurpose that stretch of parkway as an extension of NE Third Street.

In October, the city pledged $5.5 million to match federal funds, and Mayor Casey Roats, Mayor pro tem Sally Russell and City Manager Eric King will visit Washington, D.C., in April to lobby for the grant.

“It would be so good for our community if we could get that grant,” said Russell, who also chairs the Metropolitan Planning Organization policy board.

The city knows it will receive funding for Highway 97 during the next few years, and the road clearly needs work, Russell said. Now, the city, county, and the state transportation department need to figure out the best way to use that money to meet Bend’s current and expected transportation needs, she said.

“The question is, at this moment, when we have an opportunity that we haven’t really had in a long time, should we take it?” Russell asked.

A north interchange could help with access to Juniper Ridge, a 1,500-acre mostly city-owned property that Bend has struggled to develop since it acquired it from Deschutes County in 1990, said Roger Lee, executive director of Economic Development for Central Oregon.

Juniper Ridge is now home to businesses, including Les Schwab, Suterra Corp. and Pacific Power, but full-scale development could trigger the need for more improvements on Highway 97.

“Our thought is having an interchange much like the one you have on the south end of town makes a lot of sense,” Lee said. “It would open up access to Juniper Ridge considerably.”

However, state land-use laws have changed since the Baker/Knott Road interchange was built on the south end of the city, Lee said. An interchange north of Cooley could be outside of city limits, which might make it difficult to build a rural interchange because state statutes are designed to discourage sprawl, he acknowledged.

The state transportation department will work with Bend’s Metropolitan Planning Organization and will have opportunities for public input as it develops plans for Highway 97, regional spokesman Peter Murphy said.

“As we move closer to putting dollars into the project, we want to make sure we get to the right solution,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-633-2160; jshumway@bendbulletin.com