The freshly paved summit of #McKenziePass opens to all on July 4! Beloved by many, you'll be able to experience the freedom of the open road tomorrow morning with fresh, smooth pavement. 🇺🇸 The pass remained closed while crews paved the narrow and winding section of road between the winter gate and the summit on the east side of the pass. Funding from a Federal Lands Access Program grant is improving the highway from the junction with U.S. 20 in #Sisters to the summit at #DeeWrightObservatory. Improvement grants like this are critical to low-traffic volume roads like McKenzie Pass. While the paving between the winter gate and the summit on the east side is complete, paving will now move below the snow gate on the east side. This section of highway is wider, so crews will flag traffic through one lane while paving the other. Expect some delays while this work continues. After the paving is done, crews will stripe and sign the road. Project work should be complete by late August. If you plan to drive on this winding road, please keep lookout for cyclists and pedestrians, as this is a popular scenic route for many types of road users. Vehicles longer than 35 feet are prohibited from using the highway due to its sharp, narrow curves. Every year, we close McKenzie Pass from November to mid-June. Weather conditions, logistics and cost make it impractical to maintain for travel year around. When we close the road, it is closed to everyone and is not maintained. We do not open it early for cyclists or pedestrians. Even after the snow melts each spring, our crews have a lot of work to do before the road is safe for travel. Each winter trees come down and heavy rain and snow move rocks and debris onto the road. All of this is cleaned up and the pavement is patched before we open. Take a look at these pictures to see what it takes to open the pass every year.
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Dan Wolfe
2mo
In the late spring you would plow a center "lane" and then allow the sun and warmth to melt the road out. During this melt out time one was permitted to walk or bike the road. Does this no longer take place?
Shawn Mitchell
1mo
Fantastic! This is one of my favorite roads in Oregon. Thank you for your work in keeping this road safe for cyclists and vehicles!
John Horne
2mo
The Mckenzie Pass Highway is bucket-list-worthy!
Exciting! Thanks for the effort! :-)
Creative and Innovative Structural Civil Engineer in Training
2moHere’s a glimpse of what it looked like this afternoon. So excited to see it open to the public again so everyone can enjoy it!!