HASSO HERING

A driver turns left into Midway Farms on Dec. 7. Left turns here will no longer be possible once ODOT completes changes on Hwy. 20 at Independence Highway.

Improvements now getting started to prevent collisions on the Albany-Corvallis Highway may eventually help drivers, but they are creating headaches for the owner of Midway Farms, the small organic grocery and farm store on the highway near the junction with Independence Highway.

Work near the junction three miles west of Albany started Monday. On Tuesday I went to the farm store and visited with Cynthia Kapple, the owner, and Joanna Rosinska, who also works there.

Construction equipment was parked at the entrance to the farm on the south side of the highway, partly obscuring the driveway. On Monday, Kapple told me, they had just one customer all day.

For the long term, her main concern is the impending change in access to the place, especially from Albany.

The planned acceleration lane and traffic separator extending eastward from Independence Highway will reach past the Midway driveway, making left turns into the drive from Albany impossible. Also, customers leaving the business won’t be able to turn left toward Corvallis.

ODOT says it has solved that problem.

“In working with Midway Farms and adjacent property owners during the access management process,” project manager Julie GaNung told me by email, “we came to a workable solution to maintain left turns into and out of Midway Farms. We did this by acquiring the private driveway east of Midway and turning it into a public access road, which we will pave and widen a bit during construction. This road will serve the three adjacent property owners including customers of Midway Farms. Right turns in and out of Midway Farms will still be allowed at the existing access point.”

Kapple doesn’t think this will be enough. Only half the road leading from her farm store to the eastern access point is hers. The other half belongs to the adjacent property, and the narrow road is used by dump trucks to and from that property, which she fears will make it unsafe for her customers. She thinks it would have been better for ODOT to acquire the road and improve it to the new eastern driveway.

To better visualize or understand this description, look up Midway Farms on Google Maps.

To Kapple, the solution to the Highway 20 safety problem at Independence Highway would have been to install a traffic signal, avoiding the need for the acceleration lane past her driveway. But ODOT traditionally rejects signals on rural highways on the grounds that they lead to rear-end crashes and too much queuing where the goal is to move lots of traffic between cities. (Last time I checked, more than 18,000 vehicles a day used the Albany-Corvallis Highway. In the straight sections the speed is usually 50 or 60 mph.)

Kapple has owned Midway Farms for 20 years. As I hope the photos below will show, it’s a neat little store, with all kinds of fresh produce, other groceries and additional goodies including baked goods and chocolates. If you haven’t been there, check it out, regardless of whatever challenges the current construction work or future driveway configuration may pose. (hh)

Joanna Rosinska outside the store at Midway Farms on Tuesday.

A colorful seasonal display greets customers outside the store.

Apples and lots of other fresh produce inside the “cold room” at Midway Farms.