Three miles of Yachats River Road — from about milepost 5.5 to 8.5 will be repaved starting Sept. 14.Regular users of the upper three miles of Yachats River Road need to prepare for some traffic interruptions beginning Tuesday, Sept. 14.
Road & Driveway of Newport, under a $532,000 contract with Lincoln County, will begin paving the road between milepost 5.8 and milepost 8.8 (where the road splits at North Yachats River Road) that day — with traffic delays of up to 20 minutes. The project is expected to last seven days, said county public works director Roy Kinion.
Kinion said the Yachats River Road project wasn’t top on the county’s paving list this summer, but moved up when the county decided to seek a federal grant to help with a $1 million project in Toledo.
“This road is one that’s been on our list of 6-8 that need overlays,” Kinion told commissioners in July, adding that it hasn’t had any work on it for at least 20 years. “It was No. 2 on the list but got bumped to No. 1 when we decided to wait on the other (Toledo) project.”
Kinion said the county paved the lower portion of Yachats River Road about 10 years ago.
“It’s in need of some work,” he said.
Speeding on Yachats River Road has worsened over the last few years. Perhaps if more of us sent in a request for “Sharrows” to be painted on the road after the paving is complete. A “Sharrow” is a street marker painted in the road showing that the road is shared by bicyclists. It won’t slow everyone down because drivers will continue to drive as fast as they feel safe, and with new paving that will only increase that sense of safety, but at least if they are reminded visually that they share the road some might slow down.
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