Mount Hood Freeway
Cancelled freeway in Portland, Oregon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mount Hood Freeway was a proposed freeway in Portland, Oregon. The freeway would have run from the Marquam Bridge in Central Eastside to Interstate 205. The freeway would have been part of U.S. Route 26 and Interstate 80N (now Interstate 84). Other related projects would have extended the route to neighboring suburb of Gresham.
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Planning for the freeway started in 1955 when the original plans for the freeway were presented in a report by the Oregon State Highway Department. The report proposed the construction of 14 new highways in the Portland metropolitan area. These proposals were created by urban planner Robert Moses.
Route description
The approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) freeway[2] was intended to be an 8 lane thoroughfare between Interstate 5 and Interstate 205, running parallel to the Banfield Expressway. The route would have begun on the Marquam Bridge, proceeding running south of the current location of Southeast Division Street until Southeast 52nd Avenue. From here, it would have turned southeast before running parallel to Southeast Powell Boulevard (the current-day alignment of U.S. Route 26).[3][4][5] The freeway was intended to be a part of Interstate 80N (current-day Interstate 84).
A planned future expansion would have continued the freeway east parallel to Powell Boulevard before bypassing Gresham. The bypass would have run through the present day location of Gresham Butte before the freeway ended at an interchange southeast of Gresham. From here, an expressway segment, the Mount Hood Expressway, would have continued to Sandy.
History
Planning for the freeway began in 1955 when a report was presented to the Oregon State Highway Commission. This report proposed the construction of 14 new major thorough fares in Portland, including multiple expressways and freeways.
Initially, the Mount Hood Freeway was tentatively planned to open between 1968 and 1972.[6]
Legacy
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