The New Roundabout on 15th Street Was Step One. Here's What Comes Next at Reed Market
The new roundabout at SE 15th Street and Ferguson Road sits about 140 feet south of the old intersection. Crews moved it there to reconnect Ferguson and smooth out the sharp turns. They also set it slightly higher than 15th Street to flatten the steep grade on Sherwood Forest Drive, and they had to dig through rock outcroppings on both sides of the road to fit it in. Like other roundabouts in Bend, it has red decorative concrete in the splitter islands and truck apron. A multi-use path winds along the west side of 15th, and the design leaves space for future public art.
The City scheduled it to open to traffic at 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, after three months of construction, according to The Bulletin. If you live in Hidden Hills and use SE 15th every day, that roundabout matters for more than the Ferguson turn. The City built it first, and on a faster schedule, so it could take your traffic while Reed Market Road is rebuilt over the next three years.
When the project went to the Bend City Council for design services, the City's own summary said plainly what Ferguson was for:
"This is the first of several projects in close vicinity to Reed Market Road and will provide a detour route for future capital improvements at 15th Street and Reed Market Road roundabout, and the Reed Market Overcrossing. To assist with future project sequencing and detour route needs, the project is currently scheduled to complete construction by the end of 2026, on an expedited schedule."
That language comes from the council's project summary. The City's Ferguson project page says the same thing in gentler terms: the single-lane design "has been thoroughly evaluated to ensure it works seamlessly with the full suite of Reed Market corridor projects." All of these projects are funded by the 2020 Transportation GO Bond under one corridor program for Reed Market.
So the Ferguson roundabout is the piece that makes the next two projects workable. The bigger work starts in a few months.
Here's the sequence from the City's current project pages, as of the week this post publishes:
Steps four and five overlap. The bridge work starts while the roundabout is still under construction and keeps going for about two years after the roundabout is done. Ferguson was built to cover that whole stretch.
The City describes this intersection as a critical connection running east to west from Century Drive to SE 27th Street and north to south from Greenwood Avenue to Murphy Road. It also says the intersection is "nearing capacity." The City puts the problem down to an "inconsistent layout," and the specific issue is a lane mismatch: today two lanes can enter the roundabout, but only one lane exits.
| Feature | Current roundabout | Planned for end of 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Lanes entering | Two | Two at each approach |
| Lanes exiting | One | Two |
| Approach design | Inconsistent layout | Redesigned to be intuitive and as similar as possible |
| Pedestrian crossings | Existing crossings | Upgraded crossings with rectangular rapid-flashing beacons and refuge islands in the splitter medians |
| Accessibility | Older design | Brought up to current ADA standards |
The open house materials describe the physical changes. Pavement will extend outward at the corners and exits, part of the center median will be removed to make room for the extra lane, two medians will be reshaped, and sidewalks will be rebuilt on the exit sides while the entry-side sidewalks stay.
The work also extends beyond the circle. The construction bid includes repaving 15th Street from about 400 feet south of the intersection to Hollis Lane, plus a shared-use path from the intersection to Iron Horse Lane with curbs, sidewalks, driveways, markings and landscaping. That path ends at Iron Horse Lane, the same place the Ferguson path runs to from the south. Once both are finished, the corridor will have new path on both sides of Iron Horse Lane.
The roundabout project has a $2.5 million budget from the GO Bond voters approved in 2020.
The railroad overcrossing is the bigger change for anyone who drives Reed Market west of 15th. According to the City's project page, six to eight trains cross Reed Market each day, and a train can stop traffic for more than 20 minutes. The project replaces the at-grade crossing by carrying Reed Market over the tracks.
The City says a full closure is likely during construction, and the contractor will work out the detours and staging. This is where the two new roundabouts on 15th come in. The City expects the intersection improvements at American Lane and at the 15th Street roundabout to help keep traffic moving on the corridor. It considered widening the whole road instead and rejected that because it would have affected more than 100 private properties. The plan is to rebuild the intersections that feed Reed Market rather than widen Reed Market itself.
The bridge project could also add a better way to walk or bike. The City is considering a pedestrian and bicycle undercrossing and better connections at Ninth Street and American Lane. It says an eventual trail undercrossing would link sections of the Central Oregon Historic Canal Trail.
Some of the work around you is already finished, and that's easy to lose track of in the middle of a construction stretch. Ahead of the Ferguson roundabout's opening, City spokesperson Jacob Larsen told The Bulletin that "new sidewalk and shared-use path improvements will also enhance connections between neighborhoods, parks, schools, businesses, and other destinations in this growing area of Bend." Alpenglow Park is at 61049 SE 15th Street, so new path along 15th makes it easier to get there on foot or by bike.
The summer closure of Brosterhous Road for the Azalia and Windsor sewer project is also over. The City's project page, updated in September, lists the Brosterhous construction as complete.
All of this work also fits into a larger plan for the corridor. The City's council summary describes SE 15th Street as Key Route 1, a north-south key route running from Knott Road to just north of Talus Place. The summary says the Ferguson project would widen the existing shared-use paths along this route to meet Transportation System Plan requirements. Separately, the Bend Bikeway project covers shared-use path improvements along SE 15th from Reed Market Road to 300 feet south of King Hezekiah Way.
The City's calendar for the next few months is short:
Once the Reed Market roundabout work begins in early 2027, the new roundabout at Ferguson will start carrying the detour traffic it was built for.
Living next to a three-year road project is a big part of daily life near SE 15th, and if you're thinking about a move during that stretch, it's worth factoring in. Rachel Greenwald Rhoads and the Bend Lifestyle team follow southeast Bend closely. If you'd like to talk through how the Reed Market timeline might affect your plans to buy or sell, book a free consultation and home valuation with us.
Whether we’re working with first-time home buyers, seasoned investors, new residents to Bend, or anyone else, we want to help them find their ideal properties.
Rachel Greenwald Rhoads
Shana Sellers
Bend Premier Real Estate
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Bend OR 97703