The Rose City Freeway, also known as the Fremont Freeway, was a proposed freeway alignment through the Northeast sector of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. The freeway's path would have begun at the

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 ...

/ I-405 interchange near the

Fremont Bridge Fremont Bridge may refer to: * Fremont Bridge (Portland, Oregon) * Fremont Bridge (Seattle) The Fremont Bridge is a double-leaf bascule bridge that spans the Fremont Cut in Seattle, Washington. The bridge, which connects Fremont Avenue North an ...

's east approach. From the elevated

stack interchange A directional interchange, colloquially known as a stack interchange, is a type of grade-separated junction between two controlled-access highways that allows for free-flowing movement to and from all directions of traffic. These interchanges e ...

, it would transition to grade, moving roughly northeast to Prescott Street. To establish a northern cross-town freeway belt, a second section of freeway was to follow NE Prescott Street east to I-205. Although functionally the same freeway, this section was going to be named the Prescott Freeway. A successful

freeway revolt 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 re ...

surrounding the controversial St. Helens Freeway (I-505) and

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 ...

in the late 1970s impacted all Portland area freeway plans.

Remnants

The present north I-405/I-5 interchange is actually an incomplete full stack interchange. A short section of freeway was built past the interchange which transitioned to grade.

Ramp stub An unused highway is a highway or highway ramp that was partially or fully constructed, but went unused or was later closed. An unused roadway or ramp may often be referred to as an abandoned road, ghost road, highway to nowhere, stub ramp, g ...

s exist which would have connected both northbound and southbound I-5 to the eastbound Rose City Freeway. Also the NB I-5 to SB I-405 ramp was built with enough clearance to allow installation of the extra ramps needed to make a full connection to the planned freeway. All of this was built along with the Fremont Bridge, which opened in 1973. The unfinished freeway structure now serves as the Kerby Avenue exit on the Fremont Bridge's lower deck. Although removing the structure was once considered, nearby

Legacy Emanuel Hospital Legacy Emanuel Medical Center is a hospital located in the Eliot neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1912, it is one of only two Level I trauma centers in the state of Oregon, and home to the only burn center between Seatt ...

lobbied to connect it to the surface street grid in order to have emergency access from the Fremont Bridge.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Willamette Week'': Highway to Hell
(March 8, 2005): Retrospective article on Portland's cancelled freeways Cancelled highway projects in the United States History of transportation in Oregon Roads in Oregon Transportation in Portland, Oregon

Remnants

See also

References

External links