The Oregon Department of Transportation has issued advisories of several detours and restrictions on state highways because of construction and other problems.

Starting Friday, Aug. 10, the Willamette River Bridge on Oregon 219 south of Newberg, and the Yamhill River Bridge on Oregon 18 near Dayton, will close to heavy trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds or with axle weights above 34,000 pounds for tandem axles and 20,000 pounds for single axles.
The move is in order to get ready for continuing repairs. Both bridges recently were retrofitted to better withstand earthquakes. Now, cracks in reinforced concrete girders that support the approach spans for each bridge need fixing.
ODOT engineers say it will take at least until mid-December to repair the Oregon 18 bridges, while the Oregon 219 bridge will take until at least February to fix.
Until the repairs are done, heavy trucks must detour around the Yamhill River Bridge using Oregon 99W between Dayton and McMinnville. The detour for the Willamette River Bridge is Interstate 5, Oregon 217 and Oregon 99W through Newberg.
Traffic is reduced to a single lane on the John Day River (Coles) Bridge on U.S. 26, mile marker 155, between John Day and Mt. Vernon. Trucks over 80,000 pounds have been detoured around the bridge since July 12.
The restriction is needed because of stress cracks in the bridge. No firm dates for repair work have been set.
Trucks over 80,000 pounds headed westbound on U.S. 26 should go north at mile point 190.7 onto Oregon Route 7, then north again at mile point 1.13 onto Grant County Road #20 (Middle Ford Road) near Austin Junction. Continue to the junction of U.S. 395 (Ritter Junction, mile point 77.3 on U.S. 295). Take U.S. 395 south to Mt. Vernon to connect with U.S. 26 westbound. Eastbound trucks should take the same detour in reverse.
In addition, watch out for construction delays on Highway 97 near Chemult and south of Crescent between now and October. Most construction work on the Chemult project will be done between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. On the Crescent project, traffic will be restricted to one lane and controlled with flaggers as crews install new guardrails on a 9-mile stretch.
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