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PUBLISHED: Sept. 19, 2000

Highway plan works smoothly, officials say

By STARLA POINTER
Of the News-Register

With most Portland-to-coast travelers detoured around Saturday morning, traffic flowed smoothly on Three Mile Lane, where perhaps 5,000 people gathered to watch the Spruce Goose move to its new home.

Orange cones reduced the four-lane section to two lanes near Evergreen International Aviation and the McMinnville Airport. Some drivers parked their cars on the shoulders, but most found plenty of parking in fields on either side of the highway.

Oregon Department of Transportation workers closed Highway 18 to westbound traffic at McDougall's Corner and the Highway 233 junction. A solid line of vehicles crawled through Lafayette, where flaggers from a private firm helped keep traffic flowing.

Northeast traffic also was diverted through McMinnville and Lafayette.

Traffic thickened soon after Highway 18 was fully reopened at 12:15 p.m. A constant stream of cars was pouring from Evergreen by that time.

In the Spruce Goose event area, county sheriff's deputies, state police troopers and city police officers were joined by volunteers in helping with traffic and crowd control. Elsewhere, flaggers hired by the museum were used.

Traffic was relatively light in the hour leading up to the actual move.

"It's been good," said Lt. Dan Brown of the McMinnville Police Department. "About half of the people are going on through and about half are stopping here."

Deputies and ODOT workers completely closed Three Mile Lane at 10 o'clock so sections of the plane could be moved across the highway. The move itself went just as planned, taking about 40 minutes. The road reopened to two lanes of traffic about 10:45.

McMinnville Fire Department crews were stationed at Evergreen headquarters, east of the crossing, so they could respond to emergency calls in that area if necessary. The state police also had troopers on either side of Evergreen.

"We thought it went very well, with no trouble spots, no crashes and not many serious violations," said OSP Sgt. Brad Hessel. He said he talked to some motorists who were frustrated about being detoured off Highway 18, though.

Turnout at the event was smaller than anticipated - perhaps less than half the projected 10,000.

Hessel said that helped keep traffic problems at bay. "It all went better than we'd expected," he said.

Sheriff's deputies cited Steven Gibbons of Portland for reckless endangering after he refused to yield to traffic flaggers about 11:45 a.m. That was the only known incident.

Sgt. John Kowolik of the sheriff's office agreed that overall, traffic was well-behaved. Many drivers had questions about where to park and where to turn around, and some were making U-turns on the highway, though.