Bend’s first significant snowstorm of the winter hit Monday — just in time for the city of Bend to begin heavy construction work closing a major thoroughfare north of downtown.

The two factors combined to cause painstaking delays for drivers this week.

On Monday, the city began construction to replace sewer lines and make bicycle and pedestrian improvements on Olney Avenue, closing the road where it crosses under the Bend Parkway and Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway. Construction also closed the intersection of Olney and Wall Street. The intersection should open back up in June, with the rest of the project complete by the fall.

At Wednesday’s city council meeting, Bend City Manager Eric King called it a “perfect storm,” as snowy roads exacerbated delays from a closure that had been planned for months.

“We have only a few crossings to the river. This is one,” King said. “It’s a very painful project. It needs to happen to deal with aging infrastructure and improved safety at that intersection.”

This week’s storm dropped several inches of snow on Bend streets Monday, and piled on with several more each of the last few days. Forecasters initially thought the worst of the storm would pass by Wednesday, but periodic snow continued, and the National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning Thursday morning set to lift Friday afternoon. The warning advised drivers to use “extreme caution” and carry chains and supplies when traveling.

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Consistent snowfall has kept plows and sanders hard at work, according to the city. Drivers reduced speeds, clogging routes throughout the city.

“Folks are experiencing a lot of gridlock,” King said. “There’s nothing fun about that.”

Other drivers weren’t able to handle the gnarly roads. King said Wednesday evening the Bend Police Department responded to 40 crashes all over town over two days.

Jacob Larsen, a spokesperson for the city, said in an email Wednesday evening that drivers’ frustrations haven’t gone unnoticed by the city, and the city was actively working to address the impacts. Larsen said the city worked with the Oregon Department of Transportation to temporarily adjust traffic signals on Greenwood Avenue — a neighboring east-west route south of Olney — in an attempt to ease congestion. The city also sent out a map showing alternative routes for drivers to avoid the Olney closure.

To a lesser extent than snow and construction, congestion in the area north of downtown could also be explained by the new configuration of Greenwood Avenue, where the city added a bike lane and took away a lane of traffic in each direction this summer. The project is still being evaluated, but an early study indicated that travel times on neighboring corridors like Olney bumped slightly after the lane was taken away, although the increase was minimal — only a few seconds.

The city promises that Olney Avenue, like Greenwood, will be safer for bicyclists and pedestrians after construction is complete. After construction, several intersections in the corridor will feature protective concrete island and green paint indicating bike lanes. Underneath the parkway and crossing the Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railroad, a concrete strip will separate bicycle and car travel.

According to Larsen, the Olney construction was intentionally planned to commence in winter to complete the work before warmer weather brings tourists and even more traffic to Bend’s streets.

Even once Olney Avenue work wraps up, detours will become increasingly difficult to avoid for Bend drivers. The project ushers in a two to three year period of peak road construction tied to the $190 million transportation bond voters approved in 2020. The city has spent $29 million from the bond so far, and is obligated to complete dozens more projects, including Olney, in roughly the next five years.