PENDLETON — The Oregon Department of Transportation will be doing projects in and around Pendleton over the next several years, but the larger initiatives are being left on the shelf for now.

At a Tuesday, Sept. 22, Pendleton City Council workshop, ODOT area manager Ken Patterson announced that the federal government had denied Pendleton’s application for a grant to redo the interchange at Interstate 84’s Exit 209.

To alleviate traffic conflicts between Exit 209’s westbound offramp and Southgate, the city and ODOT are proposing widened roads and a new signalized intersection, among other changes. The two governments were requesting $25 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s BUILD program, with local matches provided by the state and city.

Unlike previous years, Patterson said Pendleton wasn’t passed over for other Oregon transportation projects, because there were no other Oregon projects approved this cycle.

The Exit 209 interchange project couldn’t get over the hump despite support from U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, who personally lobbied Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

Sara Hottman, Merkley’s state communications director, said Pendleton’s project was one of three to five state transportation projects the senator personally advocated for this year.

“Sen. Merkley personally appealed to Secretary Chao for this project,” she wrote in an email. “He was disappointed that Pendleton’s BUILD project wasn’t funded, but asked Sec. Chao that DOT provide substantive feedback on the project so that Pendleton will have an even stronger application next cycle.”

The latest denial has sent the state and city back to the drawing board, and Patterson said the project will need to be put on hold until they can secure federal funding.

Although ODOT and the city have planned and designed the project for years, Patterson said neither side has the money to begin the next step, which would involve buying property in the area to make way for the improvements.

Plans for Exit 209 are also time sensitive: as the years go by, construction standards change and construction costs rise, which could render portions of the interchange plan obsolete.

Despite all the challenges, Patterson encouraged the city to keep applying for the federal grant.

“We are trying to find the magic set of criteria to get the project delivered,” he said.

ODOT also poured cold water on another I-84 idea that’s recently piqued the council’s interest — building a westbound climbing lane on Rieth Hill to avoid traffic conflicts between semitrucks and passenger vehicles.

Councilor Paul Chalmers said the constituents he’s talked with “don’t give a rip” about the Exit 209 interchange, but do want to see something done about Rieth Hill.

Patterson said the climbing lane was feasible from a construction and safety standpoint, but didn’t qualify for state funding.

Patterson said the area has produced 17 crashes in the last five years, including one fatal collision, but the numbers needed to be higher to meet ODOT’s funding formula. Patterson provided a rough project estimate of $18 million. He gave similar reasoning for why ODOT couldn’t fund an eastbound climbing lane between mileposts 208-210.

Chalmers said ODOT’s formula didn’t take into account all the near misses that happen on the interstate.

“If you put a camera on the meridian, your jaw would hit your desk on a regular basis,” he said.

While ODOT spent plenty of time talking about the projects that wouldn’t get done in the near future, they also went over some projects that are already slated from 2021-24.

Some of those projects include sidewalk improvements on Highway 11, signal replacements and removals along Court and Dorion avenues, and an automated road closure gate at I-84 Exit 216 near Wildhorse Resort & Casino.