As flyover climbs, interest grows.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

A simple rule of thumb: With construction comes curiosity.

So it goes with the state's three-month-old Interstate 5/Belt Line project, where deep holes and tall iron-and-concrete pillars are turning the heads of passing drivers.

"We have curious people, based on the rubber-neckers coming through the area," Karl Wieseke, assistant project manager with the state Department of Transportation, said Friday. "We're not impacting them, but they're just coming through at a crawl. And that's expected."

The largest project ever managed by ODOT in Lane County features a "flyover" ramp that will take motorists from northbound I-5 to westbound Belt Line Road, by way of a lane that will rise 50 feet over the interstate.

The current looping on- and off-ramp interchange system for I-5 at Belt Line worked fine when it opened in 1968 to 20,000 vehicles a day, Wieseke said. Now the interchange carries almost five times that amount, which has all but eliminated the spaces that allow motorists to enter and exit past one another.

The flyover will stand on nine columns, several of which, in various states of completion, now jut into the sky in the southeast and northwest quadrants of the interchange.

The 55-foot-long pilings that support those columns must be driven more than 40 feet into the ground to help ensure an earthquake-proof structure, Wieseke said. It was difficult driving them in deep enough, so the state spent an additional $1,000 on each beam to add a plate that strengthens it so it can be hammered into the earth.

"It has us spending less time driving (the beams)," Wieseke said.

The state took aesthetics into account with the columns, he said. Their octagonal shape will be interesting, he said. "It's something more pleasing to the eye - not so boring," Wieseke said.

The flyover portion of the $72.5 million project will finish by summer 2008, hopefully before the Olympic track and field trials, Wieseke said. Other features include a new westbound lane on Belt Line from I-5 to the Coburg Road interchange, a bicycle and pedestrian bridge over I-5 north of the Harlow Road overpass and the replacement of two I-5 bridges over Game Farm Road.

A future phase includes sound walls on the west side of I-5, a new ramp from I-5 southbound to westbound Belt Line and rebuilding the congested Belt Line/Gateway Street intersection.

Wieseke said, to date, he's unaware of accidents caused by motorists distracted by the work. But he's expecting them.

"You're going to see a lot of activity out here you haven't seen before," he said. "Please keep your eyes on the road."