Costco and road projects may not align

Jackson Co., Ore. — Costco has cleared what seems to be the last hurdle in a lengthy process  to move the Medford warehouse to Central Point. But the project may not go as fast as the corporation would like, and a reconstruction of Table Rock road could put a halt on the building process.

“I shop for my business and for home, and it’s very nice to have Costco here,” Tiffany Whitehouse said. “I’m glad it’s moving because the parking is very difficult.”

Whitehouse has been coming to Medford’s Costco warehouse for twenty years. But despite the fact that the corporation got the green light to move to Central Point this week, the project is still facing road blocks.

“We had planned on improving Table Rock road six, seven years ago,” John Vial said.

Vial is the Director of Roads in Jackson County. He said the reconstruction of Table Rock road will widen it to keep up with the traffic demand.

“It’s going to build five lanes from Biddle road to Airport road, they’ll be a signal at Airport road, and then from Airport road to the freeway will be three lanes.”

Vial tells me their reconstruction timeline could get complicated if Costco begins building immediately.

“It appears now that Costco is probably going to build first, this year, and our project is not going to start until January of ’18,” Vial said.

That could mean a bottleneck for customers trying to access the new store. The question now: will the company stall their project to keep pace with the roadwork?

Either way, for Whitehouse and many others, it’s just something they’ll have to live with.

“I think you have to look beyond just the construction at the moment, and I think for the most part, it’ll be better once it’s there,” Whitehouse said. “And it’ll be a good thing.”

When the work begins, Vial is asking everyone to try and find an alternate route. The reconstruction is expected to wrap up by the end of 2018. NBC5 News reached out to Costco’s corporate office, and haven’t received a call back.

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