Highway signs placed to honor EPD Officer Chris Kilcullen

Oregon Department of Transportation sent this bulletin at 12/10/2011 01:14 PM PST

 

December 10 2011                                              For more information: Rick Little (541) 726-2442

12-329-R2                                                             email at: mailto:richard.little@odot.state.or.us

                                                                          

 

 Fallen Eugene Police officer honored with highway renaming

 

EUGENE/SPRINGFIELD — The entire length of OR 126 (Eugene-Springfield Hwy), from the intersection with 6th and 7th Streets in Eugene to the intersection with East Main Street in Springfield, has been officially named in honor of fallen Eugene Police Officer, Chris Kilcullen.

 

The family of Officer Kilcullen, during a ceremony at Willamette High School, his alma mater, unveiled one of the new highway signs that will be placed along the highway segment he regularly patrolled.

 

Senate Bill 987, approved in May by the Oregon Legislature, directs the Oregon Department of Transportation to place markers along the highway with the memorial designation. A total of four signs are now located at each end of the highway, and where travel from I-5 joins the highway in each direction.

 

“We are honored to play a role in this effort to memorialize Officer Kilcullen who made the ultimate sacrifice while helping to maintain safety on that highway,” said ODOT Region 2 Manager Sonny Chickering.

 

ODOT will now work with the Kilcullen family and the Eugene Police Department to dismantle the roadside memorial at 52nd Street, where Officer Kilcullen was shot and killed in April, 201l. “Everyone involved thought the appropriate time to remove the roadside memorial and transfer the items to the family was after the highway renaming,” said Chickering.

A group of volunteers is planning to help the family remove the memorial on Sunday.

 

Editors: A roughly edited sequence of shots taken as ODOT crews hung a sign can be found on the ODOT FTP site: ftp://ftp.odot.state.or.us/outgoing/Kilcullensignvideo/

 

 

 

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