Unspent money from the failed Wickiup Junction overpass project in La Pine is being shifted for safety improvement projects along U.S. Highway 97 through the city.

About $3 million remains after the $17 million project was shut down last year when officials found rapidly settling soil at the site off Burgess Road.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is using the remaining funds to install speed-reduction signs on the highway, make turn-lane improvements on Rosland Road, add lighting along the highway, install a TripCheck camera at Burgess Road and repaint markings on Burgess and Rosland roads.

All of that work is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year. About $1.2 million will be left for engineers to study the Wickiup Junction site to decide if a future project is possible, and what it would entail, according to ODOT spokesman Peter Murphy.

“The original reason for the overpass was for safety improvement,” Murphy said. “These projects are going in line with making the intersection safer at Wickiup Junction.”

The Wickiup Junction overpass was supposed to allow Highway 97 traffic to travel over the BNSF Railway, the last at-grade rail crossing on the highway. Work started in March 2016, but project engineers never detected ancient microscopic creatures, called diatoms, that weakened the soil beneath the overpass.

Construction completely stopped May 19, 2017, when crews discovered the ground was sinking more than 5 inches.

Beams and retaining walls remain at the unfinished site. About $625,000 of the leftover funds will be used to remove the beams that would have supported the overpass.

State transportation officials hired Farline Bridge Inc. of Stayton to do the removal work, which will be done by November.

The state transportation agency is determining what to do with the retaining walls. It doesn’t want to affect the railway crossing with major construction to remove the retaining walls before a new plan in place, Murphy said.

“We know it’s there,” Murphy said. “It’s not a surprise.”

The entire Wickiup Junction project had been full of hurdles.

On Aug. 29, 2016, two 173-foot-long concrete beams fell from a crane that was placing them on the overpass. Work resumed Oct. 27, 2016, and officials said the falling beams were not related to the weakened soil.

Seven months later the project was shut down because of the sinking soil.

— Reporter: 541-617-7820, kspurr@bendbulletin.com