The state highway system of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

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 ...

is a network of

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

s that are owned and maintained by the Highway Division of 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).

Highways and routes

The state highway system consists of about of

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

s, that is, roadways owned and maintained by ODOT. When minor connections and

frontage road A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. A frontage road is often used to provide access to private drivew ...

s are removed, that number drops to approximately or around 9% of the total road mileage in the state. Oregon's portion of the

Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

totals .

, ww.oregon.gov/ODOT/Data/Documents/OMR_2006.pdf 2006 Oregon Mileage Report July 2007 Transfers of highways between the state and county or local maintenance require the approval of the

Oregon Transportation Commission 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 Depa ...

(OTC), a five-member governor-appointed authority that meets monthly. These transfers often result in discontinuous highways, where a local government maintains part or all of a main road within its boundaries.

Transferring Roads: Handbook for Making Jurisdictional Transfers
accessed September 2007 Two separate numbering systems are used: routes (e.g. Interstate 84,

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 ...

, and

Oregon Route 140 Oregon Route 140 (OR 140) is a state highway in southern Oregon, United States. It is the longest state highway in Oregon, running from the community of White City, Oregon (just north of Medford), through Klamath Falls and on to Lakeview. It ...

) are those used by the general public, and their shields are posted on guide signs and maps. These comprise the

Interstate Highways The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

U.S. Highways The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...

, and Oregon state routes (e.g. OR 201). Highways, on the other hand, are used internally by ODOT; they are named and numbered (e.g. Pacific Highway No. 1, Willamette Highway No. 18). The two systems, while largely overlapping, are not congruent. Many ''routes'' are signed on streets which are maintained by counties and cities, and thus are not part of the state ''highway'' system at all, e.g. OR 8, whose eastern- and westernmost portions,

Canyon Road Canyon Road (formerly known as Great Plank Road) is a major road and partial state highway, which serves as a connector between Beaverton and Portland, Oregon, United States. It was the first major road constructed between the Tualatin Valle ...

and Gales Creek Road, are not actually state highways. On the other hand, some state ''highways'' are not signed as ''routes'' at all; the Beaverton–Tualatin Highway No. 141 has an official route designation ( OR 141), but remains entirely unsigned. Signed routes may comprise several highways; for instance, OR 47 is overlaid on the Mist–Clatskanie Highway No. 110, Nehalem Highway No. 102, and Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29. Likewise, highways may consist of several routes; Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29 comprises parts of OR 8 and OR 47. Every highway is fully state-maintained, and every route is at least partially state-maintained. The OTC designates the paths of these routes as they follow state highways and local roads;

Descriptions of US and OR Routes
July 2007 any U.S. Route or Interstate numbers must also be approved by the

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test quality control, protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway design and construction through ...

(AASHTO). Route signs are maintained by the same agency as the roads they are posted along. If a local government maintains a numbered route, it signs an agreement with the state to keep the signs posted, thus keeping a continuous route for the benefit of travelers.

History

The initial primary state highway system was designated in 1917, initially consisting of 36 named and numbered highways, including some designated earlier that year by the

Oregon State 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 ...

and others added to the network by the

Oregon State Highway Commission 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 Depart ...

, the predecessor to the OTC.

History of State Highways in Oregon
January 2007 The first signed routes were the

U.S. Route The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these hi ...

s, in 1926. It was not until 1932 that Oregon Routes were numbered by the OTC and marked by the

Oregon State Highway Department 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 Depart ...

;

ODOT Approved Terms & Definitions
, accessed September 2007 every primary state highway that was not already part of a U.S. Route received a route number at that time. Starting in late 1931, the state took over maintenance of many county "market roads", which became secondary state highways with three-digit numbers; some of these were assigned route numbers in 1935, but many others remained unsigned. OR 50 1948

The primary, two-digit route numbers were laid out in a grid system, similar to the

. Odd-numbered routes were north-south and increased in number bearing west, ranging from OR 3 in

Wallowa County Wallowa County () is the northeastern most county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,391, making it Oregon's fifth-least populous county. Its county seat is Enterprise. According to ''Oregon Geographic Name ...

to OR 53 in

Clatsop The Clatsop is a small tribe of Chinookan-speaking Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In the early 19th century they inhabited an area of the northwestern coast of present-day Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia R ...

and

Tillamook Tillamook may refer to: Places: * Tillamook County, Oregon, United States * Tillamook, Oregon, a city, the seat of Tillamook County * Tillamook River, United States * Tillamook Bay, a bay in the northwestern part of Oregon * Tillamook Head, a natur ...

counties. Even-numbered routes were east-west and increased in number bearing south, ranging from OR 6 in

and

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 on ...

counties to OR 70 in Klamath County. East-west highways in eastern Oregon were given route numbers between OR 74 and

OR 86 Oregon Route 86 is an Oregon state highway running from Interstate 84 at Baker City to the Idaho state line at Oxbow (near the former site of Copperfield). OR 86 comprises most of the Baker-Copperfield Highway No. 12 (see Oregon highways and ro ...

, again increasing in number to the south. Despite this pattern, the internally used highway numbers for primary highways remained ad-hoc. A few route numbers were added after the 1930s, and broke these patterns for continuity reasons:

OR 99 Oregon Route 99 is a state highway that runs between the southern border of Oregon, and the city of Junction City. Oregon Route 99 was formed from parts of the former U.S. Route 99; it shares much of its route with I-5, but much of it is also ...

, OR 126, OR 138, and OR 140. Secondary route numbers, three digits starting with 2, were laid out to generally increase bearing west. They ranged from OR 201 in

Malheur County Malheur County () is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,571. Its county seat is Vale, and its largest city is Ontario. The county was named after the Malheur River, which runs thr ...

to OR 240 in

Yamhill County Yamhill County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 107,722. The county seat is McMinnville. Yamhill County was named after the Yamhelas, members of the Kalapuya Tribe. Yamhill Cou ...

. The internally used highway numbers for secondary highways were also three digit numbers, but were designated by county, from No. 10X in

Clatsop County Clatsop County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 41,072. The county seat is Astoria. The county is named for the Clatsop tribe of Native Americans, who lived along the coast of ...

, No. 11X in Columbia County, No. 12X in

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

, etc., until No. 45X in

. In 2002 and 2003, ODOT decided to assign route numbers to most of the previously unsigned secondary highways. Typically, these new route numbers were identical to the old highway numbers, and range from OR 103 to OR 454. In cases where the highway number was already in use by a different route, the first digit of the new route number was changed to 5 (e.g. Cape Arago Hwy No. 240, designated OR 540 in 2003). Most of these new route numbers are unsigned as of 2015. Two state highways lack route numbers: Century Drive Hwy No. 372 and Midland Hwy No. 420.

Cancelled or demolished highways

The following highways were constructed and/or planned, and then subsequently demolished or cancelled. In some cases, the cancellation resulted from

freeway revolts Highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, or road protests) are organized protests against the planning or construction of highways, freeways, expressways, and other civil engineering projects that favor vehicles. Many freeway r ...

. *

Mount Hood Freeway 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 continu ...

(Approaches built, project cancelled in 1974) *

Rose City Freeway The Rose City Freeway, also known as the Fremont Freeway, was a proposed freeway alignment through the Northeast sector of Portland, Oregon. The freeway's path would have begun at the I-5/ I-405 interchange near the Fremont Bridge's east approach. ...

(Project cancelled in 1974) * US 99W

Harbor Drive Harbor Drive is a short roadway in Portland, Oregon, spanning a total length of , which primarily functions as a ramp to and from Interstate 5. It was once much longer, running along the western edge of the Willamette River in the downtown are ...

(Built in 1950, demolished in 1974) * OR 126

Roosevelt Freeway (Project cancelled in 1978) * OR 126

West Eugene Parkway Oregon OR 126 (OR 126) is a state highway that connects coastal, western, and central parts of the U.S. state of Oregon. A short freeway section of OR 126 in Eugene and Springfield is concurrent with Interstate 105 (I-105). Route d ...

(Project cancelled in 2006) * I-305

Interstate 305 (Partially built as an

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

in 1986) * I-505

Interstate 505 Interstate 505 (I-505) is a north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Sacramento Valley in Northern California. It is a spur auxiliary route of I-5 that runs from near Dunnigan south to I-80 in Vacaville. I-505 is primarily a rura ...

(Partially built, main segment cancelled in 1979) * OR 501

Alsea-Deadwood Highway (OR 501) (Partially built, never finished, partial route still in use; complete route cancelled 1936.

References

External links

Oregon Department of Transportation
(history of most highways)
ORoads: Roads & Highways
(detailed history of some highways) {{US state highways

Highways and routes

History

Cancelled or demolished highways

See also

References

External links