Weather Closes Sections Of I-84 In Eastern Oregon, Ramp Near Cascade Locks

Winter weather closed down sections of Interstate 84 in Eastern Oregon Wednesday.

A landslide near Cascade Locks in Hood River County also closed an I-84 eastbound off-ramp. It's not clear when it might reopen.

Crews are working to get the eastern Oregon sections of I-84, from Pendleton to Ontario, reopened Wednesday. 

"It's closed eastbound between La Grande and Pendleton and westbound, for passenger vehicles, Ontario to Pendleton," said Tom Strandberg with the Oregon Department of Transportation.

He said heavy fog and new snowfall led to the closures. 

"They had like 16 inches of new snow over the evening and they were still getting more snow dumped today," Strandberg said. "They’ve got multiple crews up there. We’ve borrowed crews from other districts and extra equipment, so we’re trying to clear all the pack off and get it all ready to open up to traffic as soon as it's cleared."

Updates on the eastern Oregon closures can be found here.

As for the I-84 off-ramp near Cascade Locks, exit 41 — close to the location of the Eagle Creek Fire — ODOT's Don Hamilton said that area has repeatedly been a problem. 

"This is an area we've had problems with back in December," Hamilton said. "We had to close this ramp as well because of slides. We're going to be taking a good, hard look and find out what we can do in this area to make sure that these slides don't happen again."

He said although the off-ramp is closed, I-84 is still open to all traffic in that area.

[Copyright 2019 Oregon Public Broadcasting]