Due to overcrowding from people traveling to the beaches to escape the heat over the weekend and one lane traffic over a failed culvert on NW Reeder Road, Multnomah County Transportation maintenance crews will be monitoring traffic on Sauvie Island. If there are large backups again, Multnomah County will close NW Reeder Road at NW Gillihan Road, limiting beach access. Local access will still be allowed. If NW Reeder Road must close due to overcrowding, there will be flaggers stationed on the Sauvie Island Bridge, alerting traffic of the closure. Multnomah County is working with its contractor and regulatory agencies to perform emergency work on the failed culverts outside of the regulatory in-water work window, to open both lanes to traffic as soon as possible. Updates will be provided on that timeline.
Background:
Last month, Multnomah County sent out an alert, encouraging visitors to practice patience and expect delays on Sauvie Island due to a culvert repair project on NW Reeder Road, near the Reeder Beach RV Park and Country Store.
That portion of Reeder Road is reduced to one lane for work on an overpass spanning two culverts. To manage the new traffic flow, crews have also installed a temporary stoplight.
Earlier this year two culverts under the road partially collapsed. Multnomah County made initial repairs to the sinkhole in January and February.
Follow-up work to continue the temporary repairs has to wait until mid-July, because of what’s called an in-water work window. That’s a timetable set by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife that spells out when crews are allowed to work in Oregon waterways and not disrupt fish and wildlife.
The full repairs should be made sometime in 2023.
For a look at the project, click to watch this public service announcement: /psa-reeder-road-culvert-replacement