Public Safety

I'm concerned about Highway 34 at Mary's Peak between Corvallis and Alsea. The 2 1/2 miles of curves needs to be closed and straightened for the public safety. Yesterday when I drove home from work, I noticed cracks next to the mountain side at one place of the road and the road seems like it is slightly tilted. After mud slides last month, it looks like if a logging truck or semi came at the right time, the road could collapse under the weight. There is a place under the blacktop where the integrity of the road is giving way where the water and mud flows out from underneath that can be seen on the opposite side of the curve.

Someone once said to me that a fault line runs parallel to the hill going up to Mary's Peak on the way to Corvallis. I've recently noticed deepening cracks at the side of the road that keep getting wider.

Recently, a large piece of road equipment fell into a ravine between Alsea and Waldport as it was trying to fix the road. The workman was killed. We don't need another tragedy.

There is another big safety hazard. The bridge at Fish Hatchery Road needs to be widened. You can come around the blind curve approaching Fish Hatchery Road as you drive to Corvallis and more than one time, I have approached the bridge with a logging truck in the middle of the bridge with no room for me as I slam to a stop. The vegetation on the blind curve approaching the bridge needs to be cleared so you can see what is coming onto the bridge too.

My husband came around this curve two years ago to find a truck parked in the roadway ahead of the bridge as the driver sat inquiring about the fishing along the river. A line of about eight motorcyclists were crossing the bridge in the opposite lane so the choice was between rear ending the truck, hitting a motorcycle head on, or trying to get to the right of the truck near the guard rail. He chose the guard rail which caught his left bumper and kept him from going into the river.

This is not okay. We need to take care of these things before someone is seriously injured or killed.