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Bend-Fort Rock District Ranger Kevin Larkin said the building is intended to serve as a gateway to recreational sites along Century Drive/Cascades Lakes Highway and Forest Road 41, which provides access to Benham Falls, the Deschutes River Trail and other sites.

Several mountain biking and hiking trails converge near the welcome station, and a tunnel beneath Century Drive allows riders and hikers to move from one side of the highway to the other without encountering vehicle traffic.

Visitors to the welcome station will be able to pick up maps and forest passes and permits, Larkin said, and ask questions of Forest Service employees in person.

The Forest Service previously had offices on Bend69´«Ã½™s west side that provided many of the same functions, but they moved to northeast Bend in 2011.

Larkin said the current plan is to open the welcome station Saturday and keep it open through the end of Oregon69´«Ã½™s spring break the following Sunday. The facility will then go back to weekend operations until May 1, when it will be open seven days a week.

Separately, the Forest Service has received preliminary approval to relocate a paved path that will link the welcome center with trails and bike paths on the edge of Bend.

Previously, the Forest Service had proposed a path that would run on the west side of Century Drive, crossing the highway near the north end of the Widgi Creek golf course and continuing on the east side of Century Drive to near the Good Dog trailhead, about one-half mile west of the Bend city limits.

Larkin said his agency had hoped to avoid creating a path that required users to cross the highway. Upon receiving more funds for the project from the Federal Highway Administration than previously anticipated, local Forest Service planners proposed rerouting the path and adding a second tunnel beneath Century Drive.

As currently planned and tentatively approved, the redesigned path would run along the west side of Century Drive, then cross under the highway through the tunnel at the Good Dog trailhead.

Construction of the new paved pathway could begin as soon as late spring, Larkin said, though the tunnel under the highway is not likely to be built this year.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com