Travelers who frequent the Old Emigrant Hill Frontage Road near Meacham will need to find an alternate route starting mid-March. According to an announcement from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), the Meacham Creek and Union Pacific Railroad Bridge is scheduled for a complete overhaul due to severe wear and tear. With construction commencing on Saturday, March 15, the bridge will be inaccessible through October.
Constructed almost a century ago back in 1925, the bridge is succumbing to the weight of time. "Extensive deterioration, increasing maintenance costs and potential safety concerns require a complete bridge replacement," declared ODOT in their recent bulletin. The bridge, a longtime part of Meacham's landscape, is now set for repairs that will close its roads and temporarily reroute travel.
This significant closure affects all forms of transportation, including vehicles, bikes, and pedestrian traffic between Meacham and Exit 238. In order to facilitate continued travel through the area, ODOT has arranged a detour that will reroute transit via I-84 Exit 234 (Emigrant Springs State Park). For those uninitiated with detours, fret not, as signs will be in place to steer vehicles—and the stories carried within—on this temporarily altered journey.
