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Construction began last week to repair a 73-year-old tunnel in Lane County, but residents in the unincorporated Crescent Lake community nearby are worried how the local economy may fare from multiple four-day closures of state Route 58.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is undertaking a nearly $10 million project to fix the aging Salt Creek Falls Tunnel and four failing viaducts east of Oakridge. While road construction often impacts summer travel, Crescent Lake residents fear the tunnel closures may encourage tourists to avoid their community altogether because no easy alternate route exists from the Willamette Valley and Interstate 5.

鈥淥ur community sits solely on Highway 58, so that鈥檚 our lifeblood to have products brought in as well as how people access from outside the area,鈥� said Carol Goevelinger, president of the Crescent Lake Community Action Team, which has worked with ODOT for the past year to plan for the construction project.

鈥淧eople come here to go camping and hiking, enjoy the lakes 鈥� that type of thing. But they鈥檒l just choose to go elsewhere if they鈥檙e faced with a much longer drive,鈥� she said.

When ODOT began reaching out to residents and planning construction, engineers were estimating that the tunnel might have to be closed for 24 full summer days. But the public outcry, particularly from Crescent Lake, was immediate and intense.

鈥淲e would just starve to death up here,鈥� said Dee Francis, manager of Manley鈥檚 Tavern, which is along Route 58 in Crescent Lake Junction. Francis and other workers at Manley鈥檚 have been warning travelers about the road construction, she said.

Nearly all 200 of Crescent Lake鈥檚 full-time residents responded to an economic hardship survey distributed by the community action team last fall, and all of the business owners stated they would have to lay off employees or account for other financial strains because of the summer road closures.

But ODOT has since reworked its staging plans to mitigate community impacts. Construction will be spread over two years, and there will be no total closures during the peak moneymaking months of July and August. The only four-day road closure this year will be June 4-8; regular Monday-Thursday closures will be from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Travelers who are looking to stay at Odell Lake Lodge and Resort during the road closure will have to drive at least an hour and a half out of their way. But lodge manager John McDevitt said the early June closure is not a huge inconvenience.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a good thing we鈥檙e not super busy during this time 鈥� I鈥檝e only had to call about four people to ask them what they want to do,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey responded well because it has to be done, but it would鈥檝e been terrible in July or August.鈥�

Two or more four-day road closures are expected next year, but Capital Concrete Construction of Aumsville is working on a plan that could avoid them altogether.

Capital Concrete Construction recently proposed using a precast concrete deck, rather than standard precast box girders with a cast-in-place concrete deck, according to ODOT project manager Chuck Lemos. The panels will be set on top of beams, then post-tensioned together and paved over with asphalt.

鈥淭his precast deck is kind of a new phenomenon for us,鈥� Lemos said. 鈥淏ecause of the remoteness of the site, it will really expedite things.”

Hauling wet concrete to the site would have been difficult because the nearest concrete plant is nearly two hours away in Eugene; a fragile combination of retarders and chemicals would have been required to ensure the concrete would set properly.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really a pain to haul concrete out here, so it makes a lot of sense to cast the concrete down here in the valley,鈥� Lemos said.

During the upcoming four-day closure, crews will dig out the concrete floor of the tunnel and lower it by 18 inches, and ultimately increase clearance for trucks and oversize loads. The tunnel is only 27 feet wide, however, so it is a tight jobsite.

The work typically would be done with a backhoe or a trackhoe, Lemos said, but because of the limited vertical clearance, crews will use front-end loaders instead.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a challenge 鈥� you can hardly turn around a piece of equipment in there,鈥� he said.

Crews also will seal existing cracks in the tunnel and replace the four half-viaducts, which are supported by temporary timber bracing that ODOT installed four years ago.