The 6th 7th Freeway
1970s plan
The "T-2000" plan in the 1970's included the "6th / 7th Freeway" - a new highway in-between existing 6th and 7th Avenues, with an extension to the west (an early route for the WEP).
The WEP would have overloaded 6th and 7th east of Garfield to "unacceptable" levels. In plain English, this means that the road would be even more clogged with commuters and key intersections such as 6th / 7th / Chambers would fail. Federal transportation law requires that highway approvals have "independent utility" - the approved project has to stand on its own and not require further construction impacts to meet a defined purpose and need (overloaded major roads like 6/7 constitute a violation of this). Therefore, ODOT and the City need to fully disclose whether they plan to build a 6th / 7th Freeway, a bypass through Whiteaker, or convert existing 6th and 7th into the freeway. All of these options would be extremely expensive, would have massive community impacts and would displace lots of businesses.
