Construction on Neff Road and Purcell Boulevard in Bend was set to end earlier this fall, reopening full access to St. Charles Bend, but it’s been delayed until the first week of December, weather permitting.

Construction crews have run into numerous surprises throughout the project, said Ryan Oster, the city’s engineer and infrastructure planning director.

The construction project will ultimately result in an extension of Purcell Boulevard, connecting it between Holliday Avenue and Courtney Drive to eliminate the current dead end and create a continuous street. New painted bike lanes will also be added to a large stretch of the street.

The intersection of Neff Road and Purcell Boulevard will feature new turn lanes, sidewalks, traffic signals and bike ramps.

The project, which was supposed to be completed in September, had many delays because of utility infrastructure underneath the Neff and Purcell intersection. Crews uncovered roughly 30-year-old gas, communication and power lines they had no idea were there.

“We’ve surmised that this intersection was built on top of another intersection,” Oster said.

There are a few layers of generations-old projects underneath the current Neff and Purcell intersection, Oster said.

“Everyday our team would get a call, ‘We found something else here,’” Oster said.

Despite the delays, a finished project is near.

Crews began painting stripes on the intersection Monday, and, with an approval from the Oregon Department of Transportation on traffic signal performance and good weather, the intersection could be open the first week of December, Oster said.

ODOT will begin testing the new traffic signals, which have been modernized, to account for the new turn lanes and traffic patterns, he said.

The Purcell Boulevard extension project is funded by the 2020 Transportation General Obligation Bond, which a majority of voters approved.

The intersection project is partially funded by the Department of Environmental Quality’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which paid for sewer and stormwater improvements, Oster said. The rest of the funding came from the city’s water, sewer and transportation funds.

Detours for vehicles and hospital traffic will remain in place until the intersection opens. However, pedestrians and cyclists are allowed to pass through accompanied by flaggers, as they have been during the entire process.

Oster asked for patience from drivers, especially after an incident last week resulted in a man driving a Jeep allegedly running into a flagger near the construction site, Sheila Miller, a Bend Police Department spokesperson, confirmed. The driver has not been cited, she said.

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