On Friday, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley’s office announced a $32 million award by the U.S. Department of Transportation to Bend. The grant funding, part of the Rail Crossing Elimination Project, will be used to help build an overcrossing at Reed Market Road in the city’s southern end.
The Reed Market project is projected to cost about $40 million. In addition to federal funding, the project will be supplemented by a 2020 local bond measure that prioritized safety and connecting the east and west sides of Bend, said the city’s director of engineering Ryan Oster.
Bend received the full amount requested in its USDOT grant application, according to Oster.
“Reed Market was identified as the biggest need in our system, and we’re going to be able to do that now,” said Oster. The road, he said, is a main “east-west corridor.”
Six to eight trains cross Reed Market Road per day, causing delays of up to 20 minutes and traffic backups for over a mile, he added.
Sen. Merkley said in a press release that “these major federal investments will go a long way toward improving safety and preventing traffic disruptions for many Oregonians.”
A portion of Reed Market Road will eventually close for construction and traffic will be routed over Murphy Road, another rail overcrossing completed in 2021. The Reed Market Road overcrossing project will likely be completed in 2028.
The city received a $1 million federal grant for the Reed Market overcrossing project in 2023, something Oster credited with laying the foundation for this $32 million award.
“We swung for the fences on this one, and we hit a home run,” he said.