The City of Bend announced on May 12 that a new roundabout will be built at the intersection of Skyliners Road and Skyline Ranch Road, causing a full closure of the intersection for about two months, during construction. According to a press release, the completed roundabout will “facilitate more efficient traffic movement at this very busy intersection.”
Construction is set to start June 16 and continue through August, to lessen the impact on nearby schools. The roundabout will be funded and built by the developer of Discovery West neighborhood, a planned neighborhood consisting of 245 acres, located west of Northwest Crossing. When finished, there will be nearly 800 homes. The developer of Discovery West is the same team that developed the Northwest Crossing neighborhood.
The roundabout construction will help facilitate the completion of Skyline Ranch Road, north of Shevlin Park Road, over the next couple of years.
During the summer intersection closure, traffic on Skyliners Road will be detoured via Mt. Washington Drive to NW Crossing Drive to Skyliners Road. Traffic heading north on Skyline Ranch Road, from Tetherow, will need to use Metolius to get to Mt. Washington Drive, then follow posted detour routes.
As of May 13, Bend had 50 roundabouts under the City’s jurisdiction, according to Jacob Larsen, the City of Bend’s community relations manager. There are a handful of other roundabouts that are under ODOT’s jurisdiction.
This article appears in Source Weekly May 8, 2025.
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Bend is growing at such a rapid pace, we are already seeing that roundabouts are no longer a viable intersection solution. Roundabouts are efficient for moving about 20,000 vehicles a day. Clearly, a ton of Bend roundabouts are overwhelmed causing back ups that can be a half mile long in some places.
Again, this City is run by fools. Stop the overdevelopment of Bend!