Lane County closes East King Road for Belknap Bridge painting work

East King Road near Belknap Covered Bridge will be closed during the workday on Mondays through Thursdays from June 22 through Aug. 3, forcing drivers onto Cougar Dam Road and West King Road while Lane County crews install scaffolding and finish painting the historic span. The closure runs from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., a schedule that will affect daily trips through the upper McKenzie corridor more than one-time visits.

The detour matters most for people who regularly use the route between McKenzie Bridge, Rainbow and the road network east of Eugene. Lane County’s notice posts Cougar Dam Road to West King Road as the alternate path, so weekday daytime travel through the area will take the longer loop instead of the direct crossing at Belknap Covered Bridge.

Belknap Covered Bridge is more than a local crossing. Travel Oregon says a covered bridge has stood at the site since 1890, with earlier spans replaced in 1911 and 1939 before the Christmas Flood of 1964 destroyed the 1939 bridge. The current bridge, built in 1966 and designed for Lane County by the Oregon Bridge Corporation of Eugene, is also known as the McKenzie River Bridge.

Lane County tourism materials note that louvered arch windows were added in 1975, more structural and exterior repairs came in 1992 and the roof was replaced in 2002. The bridge is Lane County’s most recently built covered bridge and its farthest east covered bridge still open to traffic, which helps explain why maintenance work here carries preservation weight as well as travel consequences.

Visitors heading to the bridge itself or nearby recreation spots on the McKenzie River do not need to cancel summer plans, but they will need to time their trips around the weekday daytime closure. The county’s notice limits the shutdown to work hours, so travel outside that window should remain available, while weekday drivers in the middle of the day will need to build in extra time for the detour.