Oregon's Dead Roads: Portland and Salem

highways that were never built

related pages:

 

"Oregon’s rapid population and economic growth between 1985 and 2000 led to proposals for new freeways to meet traffic demands and reduce congestion. Proposed projects included the Mount Hood Parkway, the Sunrise Corridor and the Western Bypass in the Portland area and the West Eugene Parkway in Eugene. For a variety of reasons including funding constraints, environmental concerns and citizen opposition, none of the projects was constructed."
– "Atlas of Oregon," p. 104 (2001)
www.cfst.org/articles/STIP_Sunrise_Comments.html and www.cfst.org/articles/TopTenReasonsNotSunriseFreeway.html

 

Mt. Hood Parkway was a proposed connection between I-84 and US 26. The Sunrise Freeway is an expressway from Clackamas (I-205) to Boring (US 26) outside the Portland UGB. As of 2020, the first phase has been built. The full freeway is intended to serve the new exurb of Damascus. The Western Bypass would have run from I-5 south of I-205 to the Columbia River, where it would have connected to I-5 north of Vancouver, WA. Combined, these roads would have been a de facto Portland Outer Beltway.


Myth: Oregon's planning laws hinder development of highways and other large public facilities.
Reality: From 1979 to 1988, Oregon's Highway Division successfully completed 146 major transportation projects. Since Oregon's planning program began (in 1973), only two large project proposals have failed: the Mt. Hood Freeway (east of Portland) and the Roosevelt Freeway (in Eugene). A 1988 study by a multi-agency committee found "the overall record of siting public facilities in Oregon to be good – probably much better than that found in other states."
http://www.uoregon.edu/~pppm/landuse/myths.html
Department of Land Conservation and Development DLCD, 1992