Delta Highway, also known as Oregon Route 132,
is a short limited-access
freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
in
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.
As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, linking downtown Eugene with
Beltline Highway.
Route description
The Delta Highway begins at an interchange with
Interstate 105 and
Oregon Route 126 on the north bank of the
Willamette River
The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...
, opposite
Downtown Eugene. It travels north and intersects Valley River Drive, which serves the
Valley River Center and a nearby retail district that includes several
car dealerships. The highway crosses under a
cable-stayed pedestrian bridge and travels northeast through the Delta Ponds, a wetland area and city park surrounded by housing. The Delta Highway intersects Goodpasture Island Road and continues north to an interchange with the Beltline Highway (
Oregon Route 569), which encircles Eugene and provides connections to
Interstate 5. The freeway ends at the Beltline Highway, but the road continues as a two-lane surface street named North Delta Road.
History
Delta Highway opened on October 27, 1964.
The highway was named for the McKenzie–Willamette delta, which it crosses. The lowest construction bid for the project, submitted by the R. A. Heintz Company, was withdrawn due to an accounting error, resulting in a dispute between the county government and the contractor, who was later awarded the bid in a second round.
Under a 2017 bill passed by the state legislature, the Oregon Transportation Commission negotiated a jurisdictional transfer with Lane County for the Delta Highway that was finalized in 2019. On January 23, 2020, the commission approved the designation of OR 132 for the corridor.
The transfer was planned ahead of state-funded improvements to the highway's northern interchange at OR 569.
Exit list
See also
*
*
References
External links
{{commons category-inline, Delta Highway
Transportation in Lane County, Oregon
Transportation in Eugene, Oregon
Roads in Oregon
Freeways in the United States