Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
The Dalles will see major construction downtown and on the west side through the spring of 2027. Last night the city held an information session on three major projects – upgrading water mains on the west side, completely redoing First Street downtown, and creating the Federal Street Plaza.
The largest project will be downtown First Street. Josh Chandler, the city development director, outlined the project:
“This is an entire rebuild from Union Street to Laughlin Street, reconstructing the roadway itself, utilities in the ground, the walls that hold up the roadway itself, as well as sidewalks, ADA improvements, pedestrian access. It will be kicking off this winter and it will go to spring 2027. The road will be closed the entire time.”
He said the planning for this project has been underway for decades, trying to minimize impacts on local citizens.
“We are going to maintain pedestrian access where we can, and as I mentioned, it’s going to be a full barricaded-off construction site. Our target completion is the summer of 2027, so Cherry Fest will be shifting off of First Street for at least the next two years.”
If you couldn’t make it to last night’s presentation, we’ve put the detailed information on the slides up from last night’s presentation on our website, gorge news center dot com.