Ocean View Drive through Yachats got much of its makeover Thursday.
Crews from Road & Driveway of Newport paved two long sections of the road east and north of Yachats Start Park – a major step in a years-long process of Lincoln County turning ownership over to the city of Yachats.
It took crews just 3½ hours Thursday to put down a 2-inch layer of asphalt between the park and U.S. Highway 101. They spent the rest of the day paving between West Second and Seventh streets north of the park. The $70,000 project will use 725 tons of asphalt.
“It’s a good day to pave,” said Clint Blaser, road maintenance supervisor for the county.
On Friday the crews will be back to add approaches to driveways and intersections, Blaser said. County crews will also need to spread gravel to even out some of the shoulders along the new pavement.
This week’s work is the largest paving project in years in Yachats and coincides with the city rebuilding parts of West First and East Second streets this month.
But motorists on Ocean View will have to pay more attention now.
Traffic will be now be one way southbound between Seventh Street and the state park. For now, two-way traffic on one lane of asphalt – with yield signs – will be allowed on Ocean View Drive from the state park to Pontiac Street.
Blaser said the county will put temporary signs on the one-way portion of the road Friday to alert drivers of the change.
“People will need time to adjust,” he said.
The agreement between the county and city calls for a 14-foot-wide lane for vehicles and an 8-foot-wide lane for pedestrians.
The county will put down temporary striping this fall and then come back in several years to put down permanent stripes after Yachats does a study to determine which directions are best for traffic flow.
The county now has approval from a state archeologist to install new guardrails along stretches of Ocean View Drive between the state park and West Sixth Street. The section of road has many Native American shell mounds underneath it and the county needed approval before digging holes.
“Once they get this down and the new guardrails in, it will look real good,” said Mitzi Brown, a county engineering technician monitoring the paving Thursday.
The county estimates its cost of improvements to Ocean View Drive at about $250,000. The final, legal and formal transfer of the road to Yachats is scheduled for the Lincoln County Commission’s Oct. 30 meeting.
We wait for years to get a decent road to drive on now we can’t use it? Sounds pretty stupid. If a 22 foot road can’t hand 2 way traffic and walkers there’s a major problem. I walk that road almost every day and yet to see a traffic jam.