Clackamas County outlines phased closures, detours and safety work for Stafford Road roundabout project

Clackamas County officials provided the Lake Oswego City Council an update Feb. 4 on a long‑planned project to add a roundabout at the Childs Road–Stafford Road intersection and other safety and multimodal improvements. County staff said they plan to open bids next week and hope to have a contractor on board within a month or two.

The project includes four main goals: remove skew and improve sight distance at Johnson Road, add a southbound left turn lane from Stafford onto Johnson, replace the Pecan Creek culvert with a fish‑passable culvert and restore habitat, add six‑foot paved bike lanes on both sides of Stafford, and construct a roundabout at the Childs Road intersection. Jonathan Hangerter, the Clackamas County project manager, told the council: “We’re planning to open bids next week. We hope to have a contractor on board in the next month or 2.”

County staff outlined a two‑season construction schedule. They said the first season could begin as early as May 1, 2025, run through fall 2025, then include a winter shutdown period with limited roadwork for utility relocations and soil settlement monitoring. Work would resume in spring 2026 and — according to the county’s schedule presented to the council — be substantially complete by Dec. 30, 2026. The county described a five‑stage closure and work plan that will require different road segments to close at different times to allow safe construction in the narrow cross section along Stafford.

Traffic impacts and detours

Joe Merrick, Clackamas County’s transportation safety program manager, said Stafford Road currently carries about 13,000 to 15,000 vehicles per day. That volume informed the county’s detour planning and its preference for signed routes on higher‑classification roads rather than through residential streets. Merrick said Oregon Department of Transportation scheduling changes removed Highway 43 as a reliable signed detour, so the county is planning a primary signed detour that uses McVay, 43A and Boones Ferry to I‑205, while recognizing that mapping apps will redistribute traffic depending on drivers’ destinations and congestion.

Because detour traffic may use multiple routes, Merrick said the county has contracted a traffic‑management consultant and will collect traffic counts, deploy temporary speed feedback signs and work with Lake Oswego and West Linn staff to respond where drivers gravitate toward neighborhood streets.

Staging, emergency access and utility work

County staff emphasized the reason for staged full closures: the existing cross section has only two 11‑foot travel lanes and almost no shoulder, and some tasks — notably culvert replacement and intersection widening for the roundabout — require excavations, fill placement and a monitored settlement period before final paving. Merrick explained the settlement work to the council: “They have to actually preload extra rock on top of the fill they need, monitor the settlement. And then once it stops settling, then they can put, you know, the asphalt and the concrete on top.”

The county said utility relocations are already underway along Stafford and that those relocations must be completed before certain road work can begin. The contract will require the contractor to preserve emergency access within the work zone and to provide a 12‑foot emergency travel lane where needed. Erica Rooney, Lake Oswego public works director and city engineer, and county staff said emergency responders will be notified and the closures entered into emergency services’ CAD systems so crews are aware of the restrictions.

Outreach and next steps

County staff told the council they hope to have a contractor schedule with more detail by March or April and that they will update a project web page and coordinate public outreach before any full closures begin. Hangerter and Merrick asked the council and Lake Oswego staff to continue coordination on detours, signage and emergency‑service planning during the construction period.

Councilors asked about response times and the possibility of a shorter, condensed construction schedule; county staff said a shorter schedule was unlikely because of geotechnical settlement constraints and the scope of work. The county reiterated that a contractor may propose alternate staging after award, and that the county will evaluate any such proposals for safety and traffic impacts.

The project team encouraged residents to monitor the county project page for schedule updates and detour details as the bid and contracting process proceeds.