The unfinished bridge and concrete abutments remain in La Pine seven years after the Oregon Department of Transportation stopped work on the overpass because the ground underneath it was settling.  

LA PINE — The remnants of the failed Wickiup Junction overpass are still visible to anyone driving along U.S. Highway 97.

To the untrained eye, the unfinished bridge and concrete abutments resemble an infrastructure project on a winter hold.

But for the residents of La Pine, it’s an eyesore with no resolution in sight.

Until now.

Seven years after the Oregon Department of Transportation abandoned the $17 million bridge that would redirect Highway 97 traffic safely over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, the department is finalizing a study that could help revive the project.

The study should give decision-makers the information they need to determine which project is the safest and most cost-effective given the area’s unique geological situation. ODOT scrapped the overpass project after officials discovered rapidly settling soil beneath the overpass. The soil contained ancient microscopic creatures, called diatoms, that weakened the ground.

“I think people just want to have some closure to it,” said Robert Townsend, ODOT area manager. “This is an important study for us, certainly. We want to make sure people know more information is coming and that there’s going to be some finality to it.”

Feasibility study coming soon

The four-year study conducted by Cornforth Consultants is set to be released sometime in late April or early May, Townsend said.

“When we stopped working on the project, we had done some high-level feasibility analysis about what potential solutions there were,” Townsend said.

“The problem is, the risk is really high, so through these four years we’ve been able to monitor settlement instead of just having a month or two of data,” Townsend said. “Now, we can project a little bit better at what solutions we may have.”

Or the agency could kill the project for good.

What ODOT has discovered by measuring the rate of settlement under the unfinished overpass is that the “catastrophic settlement” that originally put a stop to the project in 2017 is caused by an ancient lakebed packed with fossils, Townsend explained. These fossils are continuously compacting under the weight of the soil above. So the key, Townsend said, is that any infrastructure will need to weigh less than material removed during construction.

“There’s ways to mitigate that — there’s lightweight fill, there’s Styrofoam blocks that you build over, there’s different types of pumice fill that you can use — they’re just all very expensive,” Townsend said. “Some of these options are $75 million to $100 million to ensure there’s no future settlement, so the question obviously becomes, is this project worth it?”

Problems from the start

The Wickiup Junction overpass started in March 2016 but suffered setbacks. The first was on Aug. 29, 2016, when two of the 173-foot-long steel beams fell from a crane as they were being placed on the overpass. Work was halted until Oct. 27, 2016. Construction completely stopped May 19, 2017, when officials discovered the ground was sinking up to 5 inches from the microscopic diatoms.

About $2.4 million was left when it became clear that ODOT could no longer move forward with the project, and the money was used for other infrastructure improvements and to fund the ongoing study.

Since the money has been exhausted from the original project, any alternatives will be treated as a new project and must go through ODOT’s regular funding procedures. In a period where ODOT is experiencing budget shortages, it’s very possible the department will simply decide to spend the least amount of money by simply removing the failed structure, Townsend said.

That option is less than ideal for the city of La Pine, which adopted the overpass as part of its long-term vision for Wickiup Junction in the 2021 Wickiup Junction Refinement Plan. According to City Manager Geoff Wullschlager, the overpass would also have solved ongoing frustrations at the junction and improved public safety for both motorists and pedestrians.

“That is the only rail crossing between Washington and California along Highway 97 where traffic must come to a stop. In other words, in other locations, the railway goes above or below and doesn’t impede the flow of traffic,” Wullschlager said. “That’s just from a safety standpoint, and from a time standpoint, the economy of time is a benefit for everybody… I’ve personally sat there for seven minutes in the heat of summer when traffic on the 97 is really busy, so it was going to improve upon that situation as well.”

Fate of the overpass not up to La Pine

However, residents need to understand that the city has little to no bearing on ODOT’s ultimate decision, said Wullschlager. It’s common, he said, for the city to get questions about what’s happening at the junction and if there are any plans to clear the unfinished bridge.

“First there needs to be a common base of understanding of who is in charge of what … I don’t have any jurisdiction over it, but some folks seem to think that the city is controlling that, which we’re obviously not,” Wullschlager said.

While no date for a public meeting can be set until the study is released, Townsend said ODOT does plan to conduct public outreach before any final plans are reached. Information about those meetings, as well as the study, will be available on ODOT’s website.