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The Oregon Department of Transportation is moving in a new direction with the U.S. Route 20 Pioneer Mountain to Eddyville project.

The Oregon Transportation Commission has approved a plan that will increase the project’s cost by approximately $141 million and delay it another year for landslide mitigation testing.

The department has already installed 211,000 feet of horizontal drains to relieve groundwater pressure in landslide areas, according to ODOT spokesman Rick Little. Additional testing will ensure that mitigation measures aren’t excessive, and generate cost savings, he said.

鈥淲e’re already seeing some early indication that聽this聽will be successful in reducing the landslide activity,鈥� Little said. 鈥淏y taking a year to continue to monitor the data, we will be able to聽be very precise about the extent to which additional and larger landslide mitigation construction, such as buttresses, would be necessary.鈥�

The approval comes after years of delays. The latest one came last month, when new landslide-related difficulties threatened the project.

In the new plan, Scarsella Brothers Inc. will finish the 5.5-mile stretch of highway 鈥� about half of it is done.

The project’s targeted completion date now is 2016.