By Sierra Lauder, Director of Events and Downtown Development, Tillamook Area Chamber of Commerce
The final demolition of the old sidewalk on the east side of Main between First and Second is set to take place on Monday, 3/19. Access to Food Roots, Matthew Lyon’s office and The Local Dog House will be maintained with temporary planking, and (barring any unforeseen circumstances) things should go quickly there with the new curbing scheduled to be set at the end of next week and the new sidewalk poured early the following week. The corners at First and Main and Third and Main should be wrapped up by the end of this week, which means we are close to looking at the shift of traffic over to the newly constructed east side, opening up the west side for work. There is still weather to contend with, but all signs are pointing to that transition occurring by mid-April.
The big bridge deck pour went as planned on Saturday, and it is currently set to cure through March 24th. In the interim, work begins on the endwalls, forming and pouring them. (In non-construction speak, endwalls are basically the on and off ramp parts of the bridge.)
The electric work continues to be moving at a furious pace. Work continues on Main, but also the forming and cement work for the setting of the poles along the Hoquarton Park area is slated this week and through next week.
For those of you on Facebook, you may have noticed a significant amount of community dialog about the zipper merge. Law enforcement has been an active presence in the merging area, and drivers who are straddling the lane line blocking the use of both lanes have been cited. Zipper merging is encouraged, and ODOT is working with the City to get additional signage in place encouraging folks to use both lanes as long as possible. Thank you for helping spread the word.
For more FAQ’s about our project, including conceptual drawings that help visualize the project in its entirety, you can check out the ODOT page: www.TillamookTraffic.org