ODOT's new lodgepole pine snow fence extends for almost a mile on the west side of Interstate 84 in Ladd Canyon, between North Powder and La Grande. (Baker City Herald/Jayson Jacoby).

By JAYSON JACOBY

Baker City Herald

There is, Tom Strandberg allows, something of a snow problem in Ladd Canyon.

Also an occasional wind problem.

And when those two ingredients get mixed up the situation really turns messy.

A blizzard, to be blunt a relatively common occurrence from Halloween to April Fools’ Day in Ladd Canyon, the cleave in the hills through which Interstate 84 wriggles between North Powder and La Grande.

The whole six-mile stretch can provoke a shudder from even an experienced driver of slippery roads.

But one place in particular has for years bothered officials from the Oregon Department of Transportation, said Strandberg, a spokesman for the agency at its regional office in La Grande.

That spot is near the top of the pass.

At least a few times each winter and sometimes more than half a dozen gusts will barrel across the meadow that borders the freeway’s two eastbound lanes and spew spindrifts of snow across all four lanes, in the manner of a vacuum that blows a hose while sucking up a spill of confectioner’s sugar.

andquot;We’ve had repeated whiteouts in that area you can’t even see the road,andquot; Strandberg said. andquot;We needed to reduce the amount of blowing snow that gets onto the freeway there.andquot;

Nor is snow the only problem.

When the storm subsides, the wind-driven snow that sticks to the pavement can be compacted into ice by the passing of thousands of tires.

Then, when the wind rises again, driving conditions deteriorate to a point that would be comical if it weren’t so dangerous.

Strandberg said an Oregon State Police trooper once watched his patrol car, which he was standing beside, slowly slide sideways across the icy freeway, the car’s two-ton bulk propelled along the nearly frictionless roadway by the wind.

ODOT’s typical solution to such situations is straightforward: build a snow fence.

You’ve probably seen them simple constructions of galvanized steel railings that stand next to the freeway.

The idea behind snow fences is that they temporarily stall the wind, causing the airborne snow to fall before it gets to the road.

In some cases, Strandberg said, ODOT can place snow fences within the public right-of-way beside the road.

But the right-of-way in Ladd Canyon isn’t wide enough, so ODOT officials, about three years ago, pitched their snow fence plan to the owners of Seven Diamond Ranches, which owns about 2,000 acres on the west side of the freeway.

Dan Perkins, who manages and is a co-owner of the 34,000-acre Seven Diamond spread, said he didn’t think much of ODOT’s proposal.

andquot;We didn’t even want a snow fence at first,andquot; Perkins said. andquot;We like the aesthetics of the place, and we didn’t like the idea of a metal fence there.andquot;

The ranch owners’ rejection prompted ODOT officials to ponder a second, perhaps less obtrusive option, Strandberg said.

What about wood?

That, Perkins said, didn’t sound so bad.

And anyway, he has rounded up cattle in the canyon plenty of times, so he knows ODOT wasn’t exaggerating about the blizzards.

During the next year or so, with Oregon Rep. Greg Smith of Heppner acting as a mediator, ODOT and the ranch owners agreed on a compromise.

ODOT would build 3,300 feet of snow fence, made from lodgepole pine logs and spread over about a mile of freeway frontage.

The agency also paid Seven Diamond Ranches for an easement across the private property. Strandberg said the amount of the payment was not readily available.

andquot;We came to a design that we both liked and thought would look good,andquot; Perkins said.

ODOT hired Gyllenberg Construction of Baker City to build the fence.

Work started in mid-August and was finished in November, Strandberg said. The project cost ODOT $240,000 more than metal fences, though Strandberg didn’t have an estimate for the difference.

As for function, the wood fences should work as well as metal structures, he said.

There are sections of wood snow fence along other highways in Eastern Oregon, including Highway 26, but Strandberg said those probably were built several decades ago.

He’s not sure how many years had passed since ODOT last installed wood fences; in any case, the agency doesn’t plan to build any more in the region.

The Ladd Canyon project, Strandberg said, andquot;was a unique design for this situation, in trying to appease the property owner and have something that would function properly.andquot;

Although lodgepole pines grow in profusion on thousands of acres in Eastern Oregon, ODOT couldn’t secure an adequate supply of the 8-inch-diameter poles for the Ladd Canyon job, Strandberg said.

The snow fence poles were cut in Canada. Most are 12 feet long; there are some 20-footers, too, for places where the fence crosses a creek.

Workers embedded most of the posts in concrete, Strandberg said. The exceptions are posts that are above underground utilities that make digging impractical; in those places the posts are secured with rockjacks.

Perkins said the Seven Diamond Ranches’ owners like how the snow fence turned out.

andquot;We think it looks nice,andquot; he said. andquot;Maybe it will set a new standard for snow fences in the state.andquot;

Perkins admits he’s curious to see how the new fence performs in this and future winters.

andquot;There’s definitely a big snow-blowing problem up there,andquot; he said. andquot;It really swirls.andquot;

Perkins doesn’t expect the fences will pose a problem for his cattle that graze in the meadow they ought to be able to nibble right around the posts.

Well, perhaps one problem.

andquot;We’ll have to hire extra riders when we’re gathering cattle up there,andquot; Perkins said. andquot;With all that fence, they’ve got a lot more places to hide.andquot;