Cornelius Pass Road is an

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ro ...

over Cornelius Pass in the

Tualatin Mountains The Tualatin Mountains (also known as the West Hills or Southwest Hills of Portland) are a range on the western border of Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. A spur of the Northern Oregon Coast Range, they separate the Tualatin Basin of Washi ...

west of

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, United States, also extending several miles to the south. Running north–south, the road stretches between

U.S. Route 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route in the system of the United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. With a length of , it is the third longest ...

(US 30) on the north and Kinnaman Street, just south of

Oregon Route 8 Oregon Route 8, also known as Oregon Highway 8, is an Oregon state highway which serves the western suburbs of Portland. The road is locally known as Canyon Road and Tualatin Valley Highway, and travels through the center of the Tualatin Valley ...

(OR 8), on the south. The road passes through

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and Multnomah counties, crossing the Tualatin Mountains at Cornelius Pass, above sea level.

TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...

MAX Light Rail The Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned and operated by TriMet, it consists of five color-designated lines that altogether connect the six sections ...

line ( Blue Line or Westside MAX) travels over the road on a bridge. The section between US 30 in

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

and

U.S. Route 26 U.S. Route 26 (US 26) is an east–west United States highway that runs from Seaside, Oregon to Ogallala, Nebraska. When the U.S. highway system was first defined, it was limited to Nebraska and Wyoming; by the 1950s, it continued into Idaho and ...

(Sunset Highway) in Hillsboro is Oregon Route 127 (OR 127), known in the Oregon state highway system as Cornelius Pass Highway No. 127 (see

Oregon highways and routes The state highway system of the U.S. state of Oregon is a network of highways that are owned and maintained by the Highway Division of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Highways and routes The state highway system consists of abo ...

Route description

Cornelius Pass Road begins at an intersection with Southeast Kinnaman Street in southern Hillsboro, just under a mile south of the

Tualatin Valley Highway The Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29 (see Oregon highways and routes) is an Oregon highway which passes through the Tualatin Valley, between the cities of McMinnville and Beaverton. Between McMinnville and Forest Grove, the highway is signed as ...

(OR 8). It travels north across a set of railroad tracks and intersects OR 8 before continuing into Hillsboro's suburban neighborhoods. The street passes under a viaduct carrying light rail trains on the Blue Line near

Quatama station Quatama, formerly Quatama/Northwest 205th Avenue, is a light rail station in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States, that is served by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. Situated between Orenco station (TriMet), Orenco station and Willow Creek ...

near the Orenco Woods Nature Park. From the undercrossing, the highway travels through several business parks on the east side of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

's main factory, connected by the intersecting

Cornell Road Cornell Road is an east–west street and traffic corridor in the Portland metropolitan area, in Multnomah and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. It crosses the Tualatin Mountains (West Hills) between the Willamette Valley and the ...

and Evergreen Parkway. Cornelius Pass Road then reaches an interchange with

(the Sunset Highway) and turns northeast as it leaves Hillsboro. The highway winds its way around farms and forestland as it ascends into the

, reaching its highest point at Cornelius Pass, elevation . The narrow road then descends from the mountains along McCarthy Creek and approaches the

Multnomah Channel The Multnomah Channel is a distributary of the Willamette River. It diverges from the main stem a few miles upstream of the main stem's confluence with the Columbia River in Multnomah County in the U.S. state of Oregon. The channel flows northw ...

of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

, terminating at an intersection with

northwest of

. Cornelius Pass is one of only two main north–south connecting roads in Hillsboro. The former country road handles 11,000 drivers each day and is an arterial route from the

Tualatin Valley The Tualatin Valley is a farming and suburban region southwest of Portland, Oregon in the United States. The valley is formed by the meandering Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette River at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, ...

between Hillsboro to the

north of Portland. A mountainous road at points, 1,500 of the 11,000 vehicles each day are tractor-trailers on the road designed to handle up to 10,000 vehicles per day. The section between US 26 and US 30 is signed as Oregon Route 127 (OR 127) and maintained by the

Oregon Department of Transportation The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depar ...

(ODOT). A portion of the road, from US 26 to Cornell, is part of the National Highway System.

History

The road was built by Thomas R. Cornelius in the 19th century. The interchange with the Sunset Highway (US 26) was rebuilt and widened in 1989, and the road widened to five lanes from the freeway to

the following year. In 1996, the road was extended southward when 216th and 219th avenues were renamed and became the southern section of the road, terminating at

. At that time, the intersection with Baseline Road was re-aligned, but most of the extension was simply a renaming of 216th Avenue. The intersection with US 26 was altered in 2005 with new on- and off-ramps extending from Cornelius Pass to the east, where a railroad overpass had previously been located. In 2008, the entire Multnomah County section was changed to a no-passing zone on the winding road over the

End of Cornelius Pass Road in South Hillsboro - Oregon

A one-mile section from Lois to Wilkins streets closed for eight months in 2010 in order to widen the road in that area to five lanes as well as add bike lanes and sidewalks. The $12 million project included a new bridge over Beaverton Creek. The county hoped to widen the remaining portion of the road to five lanes between Walbridge/Aloclek and Wilkins. Announced in 2011, the expected cost was $10.1 million and would include a new bridge over Rock Creek. Construction closed the section for six months, with the new bridge opening on December 31, 2012; at that time, the remaining widening was expected to continue until the middle of 2013. Hillsboro also began preliminary work in 2011 to extend Cornelius Pass south of Tualatin Valley Highway to prepare for the development of South Hillsboro. The

Oregon Legislature The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the state legislature for the U.S. state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is bicameral, consisting of an upper and lower house: the Senate, whose 30 members are elected to serve four-year terms; and the Ho ...

approved $9.5 million in 2012 to fund safety improvements such as guardrails. Hillsboro also announced plans in 2012 to widen the road to seven lanes between Cornell and US 26. The widening project was completed in March 2017 at a total cost of $18.3 million. Construction began in 2016 on the extension of Cornelius Pass Road south of Tualatin Valley Highway. The extension, approximately long, was opened to traffic in July 2018. The new section crosses

Portland & Western Railroad The Portland and Western Railroad is a Class II railroad serving the U.S. state of Oregon, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of shortline and regional railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The PNWR includes a subsidiary, the Willamette ...

tracks and takes Cornelius Pass Road into the under-construction South Hillsboro area. In July 2019, a stretch of Cornelius Pass Road between US 30 and NW Germantown Road began an 11-week closure. This stretch of road had experienced a high rate of crashes in preceding years, and Multnomah County closed the road so that safety improvements could be carried out, including curve realignment and widening of shoulders. Work continued on an extension of the road to a newly-built intersection with Kinnaman Road through 2021. Meanwhile on February 16, 2021, the Washington County Board of Commissioners approved the reallocation of $8 million, previously reserved for a bridge replacement project on nearby Century Blvd, to partially fund the construction of a 5-lane bridge carrying Cornelius Pass Road over Butternut Creek. This would further extend the road south from its current terminus. Construction of the bridge, expected to cost $13 million, is scheduled to be carried out in 2022 and 2023. Southern terminus of Oregon Route 127

The section of the road between US 26 and US 30 was transferred to the

on March 1, 2021, becoming Oregon Route 127. The transfer had been approved by the state legislature in 2017. A $29.5 million project under consideration would widen the road to 5 lanes between Francis and Tualatin Valley Highway (the last remaining three-lane portion of the road south of US 26) and would additionally install a 45-inch drinking water pipeline beneath the road.

Major intersections

References

{{Hillsboro Oregon Roads in Oregon Transportation in Hillsboro, Oregon Transportation in Washington County, Oregon Transportation in Multnomah County, Oregon

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References