This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2008) |
Route information | |
---|---|
Length | 6 mi [1] (9.7 km) |
History | Canceled in 1974 |
Major junctions | |
West end | I-5 / US 26 in Portland |
I-80N / I-205 in Portland | |
East end | US 26 in Sandy |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Oregon |
Highway system | |
The Mount Hood Freeway is a partially constructed but never to be completed freeway alignment of U.S. Route 26 and Interstate 80N (now Interstate 84), which would have run through southeast Portland, Oregon. Related projects would have continued the route through the neighboring suburb of Gresham, out to the city of Sandy.
The original plans for the freeway were presented by the Oregon State Highway Department as part of a 1955 report that proposed 14 new highways in the Portland metropolitan area. The freeway proposal was part of urban planner Robert Moses’s original postwar infrastructure plan for Portland. [2]
The proposed route was to run parallel to the existing alignment of US 26 on Powell Boulevard, and would have required the destruction of 1,750 long-standing Portland homes and one percent of the Portland housing stock. Plans for the freeway triggered a revolt in Portland in the late 1960s and early 1970s, leading to its eventual cancellation. Plans for other proposed freeways in Portland were also scrapped, including Interstate 505. Funds for the project (and other canceled freeways) were spent on other transportation projects, including the first section of the MAX Light Rail system.
When the freeway was canceled, a segment was already completed southeastwards from East Burnside Road and Southeast Powell Blvd in Gresham, continuing to Sandy, which remains in use today.[ citation needed ]
The freeway would have run from the Willamette River (at the Marquam Bridge) to about SE 50th Avenue adjacent to the south side of Division St. It would then have shifted to Powell Blvd. (Route 26) near SE 54th Avenue. By the initial plan, the freeway would have ended at SE 122nd Avenue, though extensions were considered. [3]
In 1962, this section was formally submitted for inclusion in the U.S. Interstate Highway System as part of Interstate 80N, today's I-84.[ citation needed ]
I-205 was in the planning stages at the time the Mount Hood Freeway was first proposed. The I-205 routing was originally envisioned for the 52nd Avenue corridor, but ended up being built farther east at about 93rd Avenue. All plans for the Mount Hood Freeway allowed for a future I-205 connection at various spots.[ citation needed ]
Another segment of the proposal was called the Mount Hood Expressway. It would have continued the Mount Hood Freeway alignment past a stack interchange at I-205, continuing to follow Powell Blvd. before skirting Gresham to the south and connecting to the existing route.[ citation needed ]
The final segment of the proposal continued southeast from Gresham and ran to the outskirts of Sandy. This section was actually constructed (and is an expressway-grade highway), with a single interchange at the junction with Oregon Route 212.[ citation needed ]
The new highway would have carried US 26 along the entire alignment, while I-80N was to be re-routed along the portion between I-5 and I-205. The I-80N designation would have been removed from the Banfield Freeway, and the route would be duplexed over I-205 between the segments. US 26 would be taken off Powell Blvd, the Ross Island Bridge, and downtown Portland streets, continuing on I-5 and I-405 to the Sunset Highway. The Banfield Freeway section would have been taken out of the Interstate system and signed only as U.S. Route 30.[ citation needed ][ original research? ]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(March 2019) |
By the time planners began to think seriously about building the Mount Hood Freeway in the 1970s, the neighborhoods in and near its path mobilized grass-roots efforts against the freeway. The movements gained citywide and local support which changed the political landscape in local elections. Soon, it seemed as if the Federal government and some in the Oregon State Highway Department (now the Oregon Department of Transportation) were the only ones who wanted the freeway.[ original research? ]
The freeway's promoted virtue of a speedy commute was debunked by the freeway's opponents. On one hand, it was seen as benefiting only suburban Gresham and East Multnomah County at the expense of Portland's neighborhoods. On the other hand, many opponents stated that the freeway would be obsolete the minute it opened, jamming with traffic volumes that the freeway was not designed for.
Efforts to make the freeway more acceptable made their way into the later proposals. Among the proposals were increased landscaping and bike paths along the route as well as parks and community centers built over the freeway's "air rights" and a "transitway" with three-level stations (separate levels for local buses and express buses) for an express busway. These efforts, however, were not enough to sell the project.
Approval for the Mount Hood Freeway was withdrawn by the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on February 21, 1974, [4] which was followed by a similar action from the Portland City Council in late July. [5] After the project's cancellation, local transportation planners began to look at completing I-205. Disputes with the new freeway-adverse Multnomah County Commission had left a 9-mile (14 km) gap between the two completed sections. I-205 ended in the south just across the Clackamas County line and stopped at the Columbia River in the north. After the successful battle over the Mount Hood, activists were pushing for I-205's cancellation, while some neighborhoods and businesses wanted it further east or west (depending on the proposal).
After some negotiation, I-205's Multnomah County segment was finalized, reducing interchanges, eliminating a possible provision for a Mount Hood Freeway interchange, and resulting in the alignment of today's I-205. An unfinished, grade-separated transitway and a bike path were added to I-205, part of the Mount Hood Freeway ideas that actually influenced another freeway. The transitway is now being used as the route for the TriMet MAX Red Line and the MAX Green Line.
Since the completion of I-205, no major freeways have been built in the Portland metropolitan area.[ original research? ]
A total of 415 parcels in the future path of the Mount Hood Freeway were acquired by the state government, costing $7.8 million in 1975. They were gradually resold for re-integration after the proposal was defeated. [6]
Some[ who? ] believe the Mount Hood Freeway is one of the things most recognizable as a reason for the development and promotion of alternative forms of transportation in Portland. The MAX light rail system, the Portland Transit Mall, and the city's notable bicycle-friendly policies are said by some Portlanders[ who? ] to have stemmed from the freeway revolt.[ original research? ]
Only a few physical signs remain of the canceled freeway, mostly in the form of incomplete connecting ramps or ramp stubs. Some previous evidence of the Mount Hood Freeway has been eliminated by new roadwork.
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, serving several large cities on the West Coast, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Portland, and Seattle. It is the only continuous Interstate highway to touch both the Mexican and Canadian borders. Upon crossing the Mexican border at its southern terminus, the highway continues to Tijuana, Baja California, as Mexican Federal Highway 1 (Fed. 1). Upon crossing the Canadian border at its northern terminus, it continues to Vancouver as British Columbia Highway 99 (BC 99).
U.S. Highway 26 is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that runs from Seaside, Oregon, to Ogallala, Nebraska. When the U.S. Numbered Highway System was first defined, it was limited to Nebraska and Wyoming; by the 1950s, it continued into Idaho and Oregon. The highway's eastern terminus is in Ogallala at an intersection with Interstate 80 (I-80). Its western terminus is south of Seaside at an intersection with US 101. Prior to 2004, the route's last 20 miles (32 km) were cosigned with US 101 from the highways' junction south of Seaside north to Astoria where its intersection with US 30 was also US 30's western terminus. Long segments of the highway follow the historic Oregon Trail. At its peak, immediately before the establishment of the Interstate Highway System, US 26 was 1,557 miles (2,506 km) in length and terminated in Astoria.
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State Route 73 (SR 73) is an approximately 17.76-mile (28.58 km) state highway in Orange County, California. The southernmost 12 miles (19.31 km) of the highway is a toll road operated by the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency named the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, which opened in November 1996. The northernmost 5.76 miles (9.27 km) of the highway, which opened in 1978, is part of the Corona del Mar Freeway. SR 73's southern terminus is at Interstate 5 (I-5) near the San Juan Capistrano–Mission Viejo–Laguna Niguel tripoint. Its northern terminus is at Interstate 405 (I-405) in Costa Mesa. The highway's alignment through the San Joaquin Hills follows an approximately parallel path between the Pacific Coast Highway and I-405. Currently, there are no HOV lanes for the three-mile freeway segment, but the medians have been designed with sufficient clearance for their construction should the need arise in the future.
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