The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

The new bridge at Suttle Lake Resort has wooden facing. Photo by Craig Eisenbeis

One of Central Oregon's more dangerous intersections has finally been eliminated.

Just in time for the Memorial Day weekend, the partially blind entrance to Suttle Lake Resort and Cinder Beach was permanently closed.

The closure was made possible by the completion of a new single-lane bridge across Lake Creek to link the resort area with the Forest Service Road that accesses the rest of the Suttle Lake area.

"This was a really important safety concern," said Forest Service representative Maret Pajutee, who has been helping coordinate many of the recent improvements to the Suttle Lake area.

"We were able to deal with this problem thanks to the partnership that was developed with Suttle Lake Resort, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), and the Forest Service."

Forest Service engineer Larry Sharp agreed.

"This change has been talked about for 30 or 40 years," he said.

"Having this accomplished is something we've been looking forward to having done for a long time. Some of the guys who did the initial planning on this are probably retired and dead by now."

John Bingham, the new manager of Suttle Lake Resort and Marina, is very pleased with the realignment of the resort access road.

"Now people aren't taking their lives in their hands when they pull out on that highway," he said.

"One of our delivery drivers told me he puckered up pretty tight whenever he had to pull out of that old entrance."

Everyone involved in the project seemed to heave a collective sigh of relief now that the dangerous highway intersection is gone. The location has plagued Oregon drivers for years and has been the site of numerous accidents.

"The Suttle Lake entrance was recognized for years as hazardous," said Pajutee. "One of the most common comments we received was, 'Please make this a safer entrance.' The volume of traffic on Highway 20 was so great that it became quite treacherous."

Pajutee praised the engineers who were involved in the bridge design and construction. She said they graciously made a last-minute change to move the bridge three feet in order to save an old-growth fir.

That is just one example of the kind of careful attention that all the involved parties are contributing to the Suttle Lake project.

"The challenge was to fit the road alignment and grade to the aesthetic values that were there," said Sharp.

He stated that the recently completed project began last fall.

"Construction went well. We made it a concrete bridge so it would last," he said, "but we added the wood to make it look like a wooden bridge and the rock fascia to make it look natural."

Sharp is pleased with the final result.

He said that balancing the demands of highway safety and the importance of the natural setting was an interesting challenge, but one that he enjoyed working to solve.

"For safety, it's real important," he said, "but now it also provides a more pleasant access to an important recreational area over an aesthetically pleasing bridge."