Oregon Route 99W is a state-numbered route in

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 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 ...

, that runs from OR 99 and OR 99E in Junction City north to

I-5 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 Californi ...

in southwestern

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 ...

. Some signage continues it north to

US 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 ...

near downtown, but most signage agrees with 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 ...

's (ODOT) description, ending it at I-5. OR 99W is known by ODOT as the Pacific Highway West No. 1W (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 ...

); that highway continues north through downtown (along a former extension of OR 99W) to the Pacific Highway No. 1 (I-5) in northern Portland, as well as south on OR 99 to the Pacific Highway (I-5) in Eugene. Until around 1972, OR 99W was U.S. Route 99W, rejoining OR 99E (formerly US 99E) in northern Portland.

US 99 U.S. Route 99 (US 99) was a main north–south United States Numbered Highway on the West Coast of the United States until 1964, running from Calexico, California, on the US–Mexico border to Blaine, Washington, on the U.S.-Canada borde ...

then continued north along present I-5 into

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 ...

; the next segment still numbered 99 is WA 99 south of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Route description

The Pacific Highway West begins at the interchange with I-5 (Pacific Highway) and OR 126 Business ( McKenzie Highway No. 15) in eastern Eugene. It heads west through downtown Eugene along OR 99 and OR 126 Business, and then northwest and north to Junction City on OR 99. At Junction City, OR 99 ends and OR 99W begins along the Pacific Highway West, while OR 99E heads northeast on the Albany-Junction City Highway No. 58. While OR 99E quickly crosses 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 ...

, OR 99W stays on its west side through the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

, passing through towns such as Monroe, Corvallis,

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

, Rickreall, Amity, McMinnville and

Lafayette Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to: People * Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette * House of La Fayette, a French noble family ** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757� ...

Oregon Route 18 Oregon Route 18 is a state highway that runs between the Oregon Coast, near Lincoln City, Oregon, Lincoln City, and Newberg, Oregon, Newberg. OR 18 traverses the Salmon River Highway No. 39 of the Oregon state highway system, named af ...

provides a bypass for OR 99W around downtown McMinnville and Lafayette. At McMinnville, OR 99W turns northeast. It passes through the

winemaking Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...

towns of

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

and Newberg before entering the Portland

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

Sherwood Sherwood may refer to: Places Australia *Sherwood, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Sherwood, South Australia, a locality *Shire of Sherwood, a former local government area of Queensland *Electoral district of Sherwood, an electoral district from ...

. OR 18 provides a partial bypass for OR 99W around downtown Dundee and Newberg. The bypass currently ends at OR 219, but is proposed to extend northeast to OR 99W northeast of Newberg. OR 99W then skirts the city of Tualatin and passes through Tigard before entering

and immediately ending at I-5. The Pacific Highway West, however, continues northeast and north, paralleling I-5 on Barbur Boulevard.

OR 10 Oregon Route 10 is an Oregon state highway which serves Portland and some of its western suburbs. Route description OR 10 begins as Naito Parkway in Downtown Portland starting where Naito Parkway interchanges with U.S. Route 26. It heads so ...

joins at Capitol Highway, which is not a state highway. South of the

Ross Island Bridge The Ross Island Bridge is a cantilever truss bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. It carries U.S. Route 26 (Mount Hood Highway) across the river between southwest and southeast Portland. The bridge opened in 1926 and was ...

approach, Oregon Highway 99W and OR 10 split from Barbur Boulevard onto

Naito Parkway Naito Parkway is a major thoroughfare of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was formerly known as Front Avenue and Front Street and was renamed in 1996 to honor Bill Naito. It runs between SW Barbur Boulevard and NW Front Avenue, and adjac ...

, an arterial that once connected directly to

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 ...

. OR 10 ends at the west end of the Ross Island Bridge, which carries

, the

Mt. Hood Highway The Mount Hood Highway No. 26 (see Oregon highways and routes) is the Oregon Department of Transportation's designation for a highway from Portland east around the south side of Mount Hood and north via Bennett Pass to Hood River. It is marked ...

No. 26. Until around 2005, US 26 came off the bridge onto the Pacific Highway West north into downtown Portland, but it now heads west on the locally maintained Arthur Street to reach I-405. At the overpass over I-405 is the former split with Harbor Drive, which was replaced by

Tom McCall Waterfront Park Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a park located in downtown Portland, Oregon, along the Willamette River. After the 1974 removal of Harbor Drive, a major milestone in the freeway removal movement, the park was opened to the public in 19 ...

in 1974. The road now runs into Naito Parkway (formerly Front Avenue), and is state-maintained until Market Street, the eastbound half of the

one-way pair A one-way pair, one-way couple, or couplet refers to that portion of a bi-directional traffic facilitysuch as a road, bus, streetcar, or light rail linewhere its opposing flows exist as two independent and roughly parallel facilities. Descriptio ...

of the Sunset Highway (US 26 left the Pacific Highway West here prior to ca. 2005). Portland July 2017 07 (N Interstate Avenue)

The Pacific Highway West continues north through downtown, locally maintained along Naito Parkway, to the state-maintained

Steel Bridge The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double-deck vertical-lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States, opened in 1912. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries ro ...

. There is a direct ramp for northbound traffic onto the bridge, but the former southbound ramp is now used by the

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 ...

system, and so southbound traffic must head west to 3rd Avenue, three blocks west of Naito Parkway. At the northeast end of the Steel Bridge, the Pacific Highway West again becomes locally maintained, and heads north on Interstate Avenue all the way to I-5 (the Pacific Highway) near the

Interstate Bridge The Interstate Bridge (also Columbia River Interstate Bridge, I-5 Bridge, Portland-Vancouver Interstate Bridge, Vancouver-Portland Bridge) is a pair of nearly identical steel vertical-lift, Parker through-truss bridges that carry Interstate 5 ...

. It is again state-maintained north of Argyle Street.

History

The first highway in the corridor was the Capitol Highway (Highway 3), from Portland to Salem via Dayton (roughly present OR 99W and OR 221). In 1927 it was merged with the West Side Highway, which ran from Dayton to Junction City, to form the West Side Pacific Highway, still numbered 3, and a western loop of the Pacific Highway (Highway 1/U.S. Route 99). (The former Capitol Highway south of Dayton was removed from the system, but was later taken over as the Salem-Dayton Highway.) The section north of Portland was initially named Multnomah Boulevard until Interstate Avenue was adopted in 1916; the street was paved in the late 1920s amid several minor realignments to provide for a wide highway. In 1930, Highway 3 was assigned the U.S. Route 99W number, and Highway 1 (old US 99) between the ends of Highway 3 became US 99E. Highway 1 was similarly split in 1938, forming the Pacific Highway West - Highway 1W - and the Pacific Highway East, Highway 1E. Highway 1W was formed from Highway 3, and extended north on Interstate Avenue to just south of the

. In 1957, with the assignment of I-5, the Pacific Highway (Highway 1) was moved to its planned alignment, resulting in an extension of Highway 1W south to Eugene. US 99W however continued to terminate at Junction City; the new I-5 was designated US 99 when it opened in 1961. (US 99W from south of downtown Portland north to its end was temporarily part of US 99 from 1961 to 1963, when I-5 opened north of downtown.) US 99 became OR 99 in 1972, resulting in the renumbering of US 99W to OR 99W. It was truncated in 1979 to I-5 just north of the Tigard/Portland line. It was again re-extended to south of downtown in 1996, with various signs identifying it as 99W placed sporadically between downtown and Tigard.

Old alignments

The original alignment in southern Portland, bypassed in the 1930s by Barbur Boulevard, is still called Capitol Highway. It begins at the present north end of OR 99W and runs first east, then west, of Highway 1W, eventually merging with

(formerly the

Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway Oregon Route 10 is an Oregon state highway which serves Portland, Oregon, Portland and some of its western suburbs. Route description OR 10 begins as Naito Parkway in Downtown Portland, Oregon, Downtown Portland starting where Naito Parkway inte ...

) before ending at Highway 1W south of downtown. Through downtown Portland, the original alignment took US 99W across the Broadway Bridge, reaching it via 4th Avenue, Burnside Street, and Broadway northbound, and Broadway, Pine Street, and 6th Avenue southbound. In 1950 it was realigned along

, the

and a realigned Interstate Avenue. Harbor Drive was removed in 1974, resulting in OR 99W moving west one block to Front Street (now Naito Parkway) downtown.

Major intersections

:''Note: mileposts do not reflect actual mileage due to realignments.''

References

External links

Oregon Highways - Pacific Highway West #1W
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Route 099w 099W U.S. Route 99 Transportation in Washington County, Oregon Transportation in Yamhill County, Oregon Transportation in Lane County, Oregon Transportation in Multnomah County, Oregon Monmouth, Oregon Tigard, Oregon Transportation in Polk County, Oregon Transportation in Benton County, Oregon 1972 establishments in Oregon