ORoads: The Mt. Hood Freeway

Mt. Hood Freeway History

In the glory days before the Interstate highway system began choking many a metropolis' air, just after World War II, the Portland City Council brought in Robert Moses, a New York planning consultant who was behind many of the Big Apple's renovations. After a few days of meeting, he and his staff returned to the City Council with preliminary plans for a dozen freeways cutting through most of Portland. Of those, six were planned, and four were built: freeways that are now I-5, I-84, I-205, and I-405; one of the planned freeways that was eventually killed was the central focus of the light-rail campaign of the mid-1970s: The Mount Hood Freeway.

While no ground was broken for 20 years, maps of Portland in the mid-1960s show a ramp nub off the east side of I-5's Marquam Bridge leading to the proposed Mt. Hood Freeway. ODOT was planning for this route to be classified as US-26, but it was submitted to the AASHTO for Interstate status. The freeway itself was divided into two sections of planning:

Section 1 ran from the eastern approach of the I-5 Marquam Bridge to 122nd Ave. 2.2 miles east of the Powell/Division interchange (I-205 Exit 19). Though no list of planned interchanges exists at present, three definite exits would've been at I-5, SE 52nd St., and I-205; other possible interchanges could've been at SE 11th and 12th Sts., SE 39th St., and SE 82nd St. This section was shown on maps, most notably Gousha, from the early 1970s to 1978, and appears to have been the only section with a definitive routing.
Section 2 (the Mt. Hood Extension) was a little bit harder to pinpoint, but the general routing was pretty much parallel to and slightly south of current US-26 through Gresham before turning southeast towards Sandy. This section would've connected to a three-mile section of US-26 freeway built in a rural area between Gresham and Sandy around 1970, and any at-grade intersections in that section would've been upgraded to interchanges or grade separations. The freeway most likely would've stopped on Sandy's doorstep.

To obtain some more information on the Mt. Hood Freeway, I sent this e-mail to ODOT on Wednesday, July 14, 2004:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am researching the US-26 Mt. Hood Freeway proposal in Portland that was cancelled in 1978, and I have a few questions about the freeway:

* How long had the freeway been in the plans for Portland's freeway constructions? When was the highway planned and when did discussion begin?

* How long was the proposed freeway (both the original segment from the Marquam Bridge to I-205 and the "Mt. Hood Extension" to the Sandy-area), and what was the eventual end to the proposed freeway?

* What was the routing of the Mt. Hood Extension, and what were the interchanges proposed for the entire freeway?

* According to the City of Portland Office of Transportation (http://www.trans.ci.portland.or.us/), the freeway was dropped from the Interstate highway system in 1976. Was the highway originally planned to be an Interstate highway, either for immediate or future inclusion? If so, was it given a route number (e.g. Interstate 705)?

* Was the freeway given an ODOT highway number (e.g. Mount Hood Highway #26)?

* What was the estimated cost and length of construction time that the freeway would've cost, and what was the estimated start and end of construction of the freeway?

* I completely understand if ODOT is unable to answer any or all of these questions. If ODOT cannot answer these questions, whom should I contact or where should I look to research this matter further?

I would appreciate a response by e-mail. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Jason

I re-sent the e-mail using my Yahoo account on May 31, 2005, and on June 3rd I received a response that shed some light on the situation (see the full e-mail here). Apparently the freeway was submitted for Interstate approval, but not as any I-x05: it was supposed to be the mainline for Interstate 80N. The routing of I-80N along the Mt. Hood Freeway was even approved along the section between I-5 and I-205 (a distace of 5.3 miles) by the FHWA on January 22, 1969; this would've resulted in a duplex of I-80N and I-205 between Exit 19 and Exit 22. Also, according to the e-mail, "[t]he 5.79 miles of the Banfield from the Marquam to 96th were withdrawn from the Interstate system and placed on the state system."

It all makes sense now. The 2.5-mile jump in I-84's mileposts, I-84 exiting from itself at Exit 9 Westbound, the cramming of exit numbers...it all fits. I-80N (and thus I-84) was supposed to duplex with I-205 (which would've been Oregon's first Interstate duplex) along that stretch, accounting for the missing mileage and the strange exit. I-84 would'nt have exited itself then; it would've provided ramps to the portion of the Banfield that was removed from the Interstate system. US-30 probably would've remained on the freeway.

What's interesting is that the e-mail made no mention of US-26 being routed along the highway, only that the highway terminated at US-26 south of Gresham. The e-mail begs a few more questions that I will pass along to ODOT, such as:

Would US-26 have been re-routed onto any stretch of the highway, or would it only have been I-80N?
If the latter, what would the 2.2 miles past I-205 have been designated as? A State Route? A U.S. Route? Another Interstate? Or left undesignated?
Was all of the freeway considered the Mt. Hood Freeway #24, or would the Columbia River Highway #2 have been rerouted along the I-80N portion? (I know for a fact that the Banfield Freeway was originally designated as the T.H. Banfield Freeway #56 when it was first built.)
If built, would the Mt. Hood Extension also be designated as the Mt. Hood Freeway #24 or would it have been given its own number?

I plan to send another e-mail on Monday, June 6th, thanking this person for the information and asking them these other questions. Once again, you'll know when I know.