Grand Ronde Road repaving will begin June 5

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals assistant editor/staff writer

Grand Ronde residents and governmental employees will be facing a summer of repaving work on Grand Ronde Road, which began Monday, June 5.

The start date is 10 days ahead of schedule and the project is expected to wrap up by the end of September, according to construction information signs placed on Grand Ronde Road. 

Tribal Engineering and Planning Manager Ryan Webb sent out an all-employee email Friday, June 2, to give everyone a heads-up on the impending road work.

“During this time there will be single lane closures on Grand Ronde Road,” he said. “As they excavate and replace the road section, they will have flaggers to move traffic through the work zone area.”   

The first phase, tentatively set to end Friday, June 9, began near the intersection of Highway 22 and Grand Ronde Road. 

Polk County Public Works Director Todd Whitaker said the project is a “full depth” reconstruction that will clear away the entire old roadway surface and lay down six inches of new asphalt, two more inches than was laid down during the last repaving that occurred in 2009-10.

The Grand Ronde Tribe is paying for about 50 percent of the project with Yamhill County paying for about 7 percent while Polk County is accounting for the other 43 percent. The northern end of Grand Ronde Road is in Yamhill County.

Whitaker said that one lane will remain open with flagger control throughout the project, which is being managed by Polk County Public Works.

On April 19, Tribal Council approved a memorandum of understanding between Polk County and the Tribe to fund the engineering design and an intergovernmental agreement authorizing up to $1.5 million for the Tribe’s portion of the project.

• Includes information from the Polk County Itemizer-Observer