Wreck-prone stretch of I-84 to be heated in winter
BAKER CITY, Ore. – Oregon Department of Transportation engineers say they plan to heat a 1.2-mile section of Interstate 84 along the treacherous Ladd Canyon stretch to reduce winter traffic accidents.
The copper heating wires will be installed below the road surface only on the right side of the eastbound lanes, with completion of the $1 million project between La Grande and North Powder expected by December 2005.
New snow fences will go up along a one-mile section of the westbound lanes to reduce wind-driven snow on the highway.
The wire will be laid in grooves cut in the pavement that will be covered with a tar-like substance similar to the material highway crews use to fill cracks.
When the temperature drops to a preset level, electricity will flow into the buried copper wires, warming them and, eventually, the road surface.
Chuck Howe, project leader at ODOT’s regional office in La Grande, said the freeway should stay warm enough to prevent winter storms from coating it with ice that slows traffic and causes accidents.
The project should reduce the frequency and duration of road closures, but it won’t eliminate them, Howe said.
Between 1998 and 2002, police responded to an average of 31 crashes per year on a nine-mile section of freeway that includes Ladd Canyon – four times higher than the statewide average for other rural freeways, according to ODOT statistics.
Not even Cabbage Hill, the legendary grade near Pendleton that confronts drivers with steep grades, switchbacks and frequent freezing fog, can match Ladd Canyon’s wreck rate.
Howe said ODOT officials also will be able to turn the power on and off from the regional office in La Grande, so if a storm seems imminent, they can preheat the pavement.
He emphasized, however, the heating system cannot melt inches of packed snow in mere minutes. But by warming the pavement to even a few degrees above freezing, the wires should prevent snow from stacking up as quickly, or as thickly, as it does now, Howe said.
The heating also will make it easier for snowplow drivers to scrape the right lane clean, he said.
Highway crews will supplement the heating system with liquid magnesium-chloride, a chemical spray that inhibits ice from forming.