JOHN DAY, OR Work on the U.S. 395 Vance Creek and Sheep Gulch Culvert Replacement Project south of John Day, Oregon, in Grant County is progressing. A section of U.S. 395 is closed to facilitate digging out the highway up to 40 feet below the surface and installing the new culverts.

ODOT is working with local fire and emergency service providers, private property owners, and local traffic needing access to county and forest service roads between the two work sites to help accommodate critical needs as much as possible during the closure.

The Sheep Gulch Culvert near milepost 6.1-C and the Vance Creek Culvert near milepost 11-C are insufficient to handle water and debris flows anticipated due to erosion issues left after the Canyon Creek Complex Fire that burned through the area during the summer. The U.S. Forest Service is estimating a 100 percent to 650 percent increase in water and debris flow along several creeks that drain off the mountainside into Canyon Creek and other local tributaries. The project will replace the culverts with new structures that are designed to accommodate the anticipated flows.

The new 20-foot diameter, round metal culvert at Vance Creek is being built in sections that will be lowered into a 40-foot-deep trench under the roadway. The culvert sections will be connected together to create a finished pipe more than 100 feet in length. The highway at this site is completely dug out and the route is closed to all traffic.

The Sheep Gulch culvert is made of concrete, U-shaped sections that were lowered in place with a crane. Both culverts will have rocks and other materials placed at the bottom to create a natural streambed for fish passage. The concrete culvert sections placed under the roadway at Sheep Gulch will have concrete caps placed over them after the streambed is created.