Oregonian File Photo

More like, highway to the construction zone.

Crews will start work this summer on more than two dozen road projects in the Portland area, causing lane closures, detours and traffic snarls ranging from a few hours to multiple weeks to several months.

Collectively, the projects mark the busiest construction season on Portland highways and freeways in a decade. This is all before work begins in coming years on big-ticket projects approved last year by state lawmakers as part of a $5.3 billion transportation package.

This isn’t a comprehensive list and doesn’t include city paving projects or work in Washington or Clackamas counties [we may take another crack at this later this month].

But Oregon Department of Transportation officials are trying to get the word out sooner rather than later.

“Each one is going to be awful,” Don Hamilton, Oregon transportation spokesman, said last month of the significant road projects and their ripple effects.

Some will be more disruptive than others. The following list isn’t ranked in order of project cost, scale, or importance -- aside from the first project, which Hamilton said would be the most challenging.

Read the details and you’ll see why:

Don't Edit

Interstate 84 and Interstate 5 ramps and bridges

The most disruptive project will require “around the clock” closures of three of the bridges connecting Interstate 5 and Interstate 84.

One bridge will close at a time, and the bridge connecting I-5 northbound to I-84 eastbound won’t be closed during the day. But the closures will last for two weeks or more.

“These ramps have not had the upgrades they needed since they opened,” Hamilton said.

The project will begin July 8 with a planned closure of the I-5 southbound ramp to I-84. That closure is expected to last until July 23.

According to ODOT, the project includes replacing bridge joints, resurfacing the roadway and other structural repairs. “Without these repairs, the bridges would need to close to trucks or other heavy vehicles and could eventually stop serving all drivers,” the state says on its website.

More information here.

Cost: $6.75 million

Don't Edit

Interstate 5 paving project

At roughly the same time as the I-84 project, crews will begin repaving a six mile stretch of I-5 in both directions from the Interstate Bridge to the Moda Center. This project will cause nighttime lane and ramp closures and detours between the Fremont and Marquam bridges. Work will begin in late June and continue until the fall.

Cost: $17.2 million

Don't Edit

Oregon 99E in Oregon City

Multiple lanes of McLoughlin Boulevard in Oregon City will be closed from July through September as crews work to reduce the threat posed by a nearby hillside prone to landslides. Travel will be restricted to one lane in each direction for months.

Beyond the lane closures, “occasional 20-minute full closures may be necessary,” ODOT said in a release. Those closures will happen “whenever possible,” outside the morning and evening commute.

The closures are south of the Railroad Avenue tunnel in Oregon City.

This part of highway has seen at least eight rockfall incidents in the past decade. The most recent, in 2016, closed one lane for multiple days.

Cost: $1.8 million

Don't Edit

More I-5 paving

Work crews are paving a 5.5 mile stretch of I-5 from Oregon 99W to I-205. This project is already underway and will last until next spring.

The project includes building a southbound auxiliary lane from just north of Lower Boones Ferry Road to I-205 to improve merging and exiting the highway and a second auxiliary lane for northbound travelers at the same exit. Expect night and weekend lane and ramp closures.

Cost: $28.3 million

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Inner Powell Boulevard

ODOT will close lanes starting this week on a stretch of inner Southeast Powell Boulevard in Portland from 20th to 34th Avenue.

This project includes three rapid flash beacons pedestrian signals at 24th, 31st and 34th Aves, better bicyclist and pedestrian crossings at other locations and new traffic signals at 21st, 26th and 33rd Aves. Lane closures are expected through June 15, and the overall project will last until 2019.

Cost: $3.8 million

Don't Edit

New signs everywhere

State workers will install dozens of new road signs on I-5 and I-84. Expect some day-time closures on I-5, but most of the work will happen at night. The I-5 project is from south of Iowa Street viaduct to north of the interchange with Oregon 217. The I-84 sign project is between Northeast 102nd and 148th Ave. The I-84 closures will require periodic full closures of the freeway. Both projects will extend into the fall.

Cost: $4 million

Don't Edit

New lane on Sunset Highway

A third travel lane is expected to open in both directions between the 185th Ave and Cornelius Pass Road exits on U.S. 26. Work started on this project back in November 2016. The new lane is completed, but crews will have period lane closures to continue until July as final cleanup is finished on site.

Cost: $34.5 million

Don't Edit

Interstate 205

Work is still underway on a I-205 paving project that first began in 2017 and is expected to last until late 2019. Crews are paving a 9-mile stretch of the highway between Johnson Creek Boulevard and the Glenn Jackson Bridge.

That project includes adding three new auxiliary lanes, new real-time traffic time signs and will also make it easier to get to a multi-use path at Glisan Street. The northbound exit to U.S. 30 Bypass/ Killingsworth Street will close 24/7 for two weeks at some point this summer.

A separate 9-mile paving project from the Interstate 5 interchange to the south end of the Abernethy Bridge in West Linn will also result in nighttime and weekend lane closures. This project will finish by the fall of 2018.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen