Large steel gates have been installed at each end of a remote section of Highway 20/126 between the Santiam Junction and Sweet Home. The Oregon Department of Transportation will close the gates if a landslide or heavy snowfall blocks the road.

Failed to execute CGI : Win32 Error Code = 3
The eastern gate is at the Clear Lake Junction, 28 miles west of Sisters, where the road splits to Sweet Home or Eugene. The western gate is about 21 miles east of Sweet home, above Mountain House.

According to maintenance manger Rod Bricco, the gates will allow ODOT's highway division to protect people and free up "manpower so we can take care of the road," if a slide or snow forces closure.

Once a slide is discovered, the road can be closed quickly, rather than workers having to find and install barricades. With locked gates, barricades will not have to be staffed by highway division employees or the National Guard, Bricco said.

It is hoped that the gates will save people from driving down to find the road closed and having to drive back to an alternative route.

Motorists heading west could immediately decide whether to drive to Salem or Eugene if the Sweet Home road was blocked.

Failed to execute CGI : Win32 Error Code = 3
Following the February storms of 1996, this section of Highway 20/126 was closed for two months by five landslides. It cost $800,000 to repair.