Possibilities for jurisdictional transfers of highways


In a recent article on 82nd Avenue, the subject of jurisdictional transfers came up. Many streets and highways in the Portland area are managed and operated by ODOT, and in some cases this is inappropriate. (There are several other locally-managed roads for which ODOT ownership might be more appropriate). This article takes a look at some possibilities.
Preliminaries

First, a few preliminaries. Unlike many states, which have a single numbering system for their state highways (posted route numbers); the state of Oregon has two numbering systems.

  • Route numbers are the numbers posted on highway shields. Three types exist in Oregon (at the state level; some counties and the US Forest Service also assign numeric route numbers to their roads; these are not relevant to this article)–Interstate highways (I-5, I-84), US Highways (US26, US101), and Oregon highways (OR217, OR99E). While the first two are planned according to nationwide strategies and assigned numbers by various federal agencies, the actual pavement is owned and maintained by ODOT.
  • ODOT Highway numbers. These are rarely noticed by motorists (they are part of the small print on some mile markers). All ODOT-maintained roads are assigned an ODOT highway number, which is generally only used internally, and not published prominently on signs or on maps. (A few exceptions exist). The ODOT highway numbers are frequently different than the route numbers, though in some cases they are the same.

An important point: Many roads which are assigned route numbers are NOT ODOT-maintained highways, and there are a few ODOT highways without visible route numbers. Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway is signed OR10, but the portions of it in Multnomah County are no longer maintained by the state. On the other hand, Hall Boulevard and Boones Ferry Road south of Washington Square down to Wilsonville, are actually a state highway (#141) even though you won’t see any route signs for this. In the past ten years, ODOT has been assigning route numbers to unsigned state highways at the direction of the Legislature; a local example of this occurring is the Wilsonville-Hubbard Highway, which used to be unsigned and is now OR-551.

With that in mind, when it is suggested below that a highway is transferred from ODOT to local jurisdiction, it is not being proposed that the route number be dropped; these are useful for wayfinding. That said, many obsolete former highways have lost their route numbers as they transformed into local streets. Borland Road and Willamette Drive between Tualatin and West Linn used to be part of OR212, but the road was transferred to Clackamas County and the designation dropped after the construction of I-205 made it obsolete as a highway.

In general, it is my belief that the following types of roads should be kept (or placed) in ODOT jurisdiction:

  • Freeways and expressways
  • Other highways, particularly of regional importance.
  • Important freight corridors

Roads that function primarily as local arterials, in general, should be under local jurisdiction. A particular class of route that I believe should be transferred is highways obsoleted by freeways. Borland Road, Sandy Boulevard, and Interstate Avenue are examples of such which have already been converted to local jurisdiction and now function as local arterials. However, many other freeway-adjacent highways still are highways.

With that in mind…

Roads to transfer to local jurisdiction.

In no particular order…

  • Hall/Boones Ferry. As mentioned above, SW Boones Ferry between Wilsonville and Durham, and SW Hall through Tigard, ending at Progress, is technically a state highway. Out of all the freeway-adjacent highways, this is by far the most anachronistic, as it doesn’t function as a highway at all. There is no advantage to keeping this route on ODOT’s rolls.
  • Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. As noted above, this is only a state highway between OR217 and the Portland city limits, at which point it becomes a city street. The rest of OR10 east of OR217 should likewise be transferred off the state rolls, with Washington County the likely recipient. The fact that the Portland part was already turned over undermines the rationale for the rest of it.
  • Scholls Ferry Road. I’m referring to the segment between Progress and Raleigh Hills, with is generally a 2-3 lane arterial through residential neighborhoods. OR210 west of Progress should remain a state highway, as it serves much regional and freight traffic. It’s worth noting that the stretch of Scholls Ferry between Raleigh Hills and Sylvan once also was a state highway, but was abandoned long ago.
  • Barbur Boulevard. Here’s the big one–the entire stretch of Barbur Boulevard from downtown to the Tigard interchange just west of PCC-Sylvania. South of there, where OR99W gets called the “Pacific Highway”, ODOT maintenance should remain in force; but north of there Barbur lies within close proximity to I-5, but still is expected to function as a highway.
  • SE 82nd Avenue. Here’s another example of a former highway being obsoleted by a nearby freeway. Barbur still is built, kinda, to highway design standards. 82nd, OTOH, has much higher density along it, and functions as a highway not at all, with I-205 running ten blocks or so to the east. Other than short snippets near the airport and around the OR224 interchange, 82nd should become a city street.
  • MLK and Grand. This last one is probably the most controversial on the list, as OR99E still functions significantly as a highway–but the stretch downtown and through Northeast Portland is also obsoleted by a nearby freeway–in this case, I-5. McLoughlin Boulevard should remain in the state system, and the northernmost stretch of MLK north of Columbia should remain as state highways, but between the Ross Island Bridge and Columbia, MLK and Grand should be permitted to function as city streets.

Roads to ADD to the state highway system.

There are a few streets which might be useful additions to the state highway system, given their regional and/or freight importance. If nothing else, these could be part of jurisdictional swaps, where the state and various localities exchanges roadways with each other. Among these.

  • Edy Road/Tualatin Sherwood Road. This road, which connects OR99W in the Six Corners area of Sherwood to Interstate 5, is a major corridor for freight traffic, and a popular alternative to 99W for inbound traffic. The idea of turning this into a state highway might be obsoleted by the proposed I5-99W Connector project, but that project has been in limbo for three years now, as Clackamas County strenuously wants to avoid any spillover traffic; making TSH a state highway might be a fallback position.
  • Roy Rogers Road. Continuing north from Six Corners, Roy Rogers Road is a high-speed, two-lane highway that connects Sherwood with South Beaverton, ending at Scholls Ferry Road just west of Progress Ridge. Of course, the northern terminus of this route is part of the South Cooper Mountain UGB expansion area (and a smaller UGB expansion southwest of Bull Mountain is also adjacent to Roy Rogers Road), so that needs to be taken into effect.
  • Cornelius Pass Road. I’m speaking mainly of the stretch between US30 and US26, possibly extending as far south as Cornell; but this part of Cornelius Pass also functions as a major regional freight route. South of Cornell, Cornelius Pass serves as a local arterial, which would not be an appropriate highway.

One more realignment

Dan w did a guest post on this, but the current routing of US30 Bypass along N Lombard, is a big mess. For one thing, it’s questionable whether or not US30 needs a bypass in the first place–this is a historical relic from the time when the US30 mainline was Sandy-Burnside-18th/19th-Vaughn-St. Helens Road. With the current routing via the Banfield Freeway, the Fremont Bridge, and NW Yeon, there’s no need for a “bypass”–let alone one that travels on 3-lane surface streets through residential neighborhoods.

For most of the stretch of Killingsworth/Lombard, the obvious thing is to shift the highway designation to Columbia Boulevard, which is a designated freight route. Doing so might permit transit improvements to the 72 and 75, if nothing else. The problem is, is that there really isn’t any good connection between the Saint Johns Bridge and Columbia Boulevard, which is a big reason that additional crossings of the Willamette in North Portland are often proposed.

But regardless of that, transferring Lombard/Killingsworth to local jurisdiction, and making Columbia a state highway, at least out to Portland Road, makes some sense.

Bonus trivia: Did you know that Portland Road between Columbia and Marine, as well as Marine Drive east of their to I-5, is also a state highway? It’s known by ODOT as the “Swift Highway”, and is designated as OR120. Given that this route is mostly useless, it’s one that ODOT has declined to post route markers for, but Google Maps tells all…


16 responses to “Possibilities for jurisdictional transfers of highways”

  1. I suspect ODOT might fight to hang on to Barbur. Many of their policy documents identify it as an alternate route when I-5 has incident failures.

    I might be inclined to add Highway 43 to your ‘transfer’ list.

  2. The transfer of 43 (ODOT Hwy #3) would be messy with so many jurisdictions involved. ODOT would like to do all of it at one time, but some local governments (Clackamas County, Lake Oswego, and (perhaps) especially West Linn) are less eager to accept responsibility than others. The Johns Landing/LO streetcar extension provided impetus, but after ODOT more or less accepted the idea of streetcar on Macadam and the LO section was sidetracked, local governments’ interest has diminished a bit.

    Being that local governments pay are involved in so much Highway 43 maintenance anyway and are restricted in their traffic management by state rules, I think that the transfer is inevitable and would be a good thing—even with the unavoidable interjurisdictional squabbles to come.

  3. “…a historical relic from the time when the US30 mainline was Sandy-Burnside-18th/19th-Vaughn-St. Helens Road.”

    I’m curious about this. During what years was this the official route?

  4. For a long time–the US highway system is nearly a century old, and US 30 itself dates back to 1925, though it wasn’t extended to Portland until later. Sandy/Burnside was the route of US30 through East Portland, until the completion of the Banfield. Later freeway construction–particularly the Fremont Bridge, would take it off the downtown grid, and in the 1980s IIRC it was re-routed to Yeon after the plans to build I-505 through NW Portland were cancelled.

    It was only five years ago that the “US30 Business” designation was removed

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_30_in_Oregon

  5. Ah, highway geekery! One of my favorites.

    (Standard disclaimer: these comments reflect my views not those of the City of Tigard, where I chair the urban renewal commission.)

    Hall/Boones: I would suggest it is still a highway of importance in some sections, such as from Beaverton through to Washington Square, and it still at times serves as an important backup to 217. However, by-and-large, you’re correct, this former OR-217 route is obsolete. The problem with it being transferred to local jurisdiction is one common to many of these situations: infrastructure failure. In the Tigard segment, for example, the road has a bridge over Fanno Creek that is rather outdated. The city is reluctant to take it on until ODOT replaces this bridge with a new, sounder, higher one. ODOT, conversely, does not want to pay for this. Therefore it is stuck in limbo because of old infrastructure.

    It is, however, my understanding that Hall is already under local control in Beaverton.

    B-H and Scholls, no comments.

    Barbur. Nu-uh. This was already half-attempted in the past, and Chris is right, ODOT has interest in it as a significant detour route. Also, having experienced this road extensively throughout my life I can attest that it remains a highway despite I-5 being nearby.

    Now, I could maybe go along with this notion if we were talking about a proposal to significantly alter the character of the road to be a transit/ped corridor, e.g. do to it what was done to Interstate. With the SW Corridor program that’s a potential outcome. But so long as it remains a four-lane, it will be used by drivers as a highway and as a relief valve for 5. Also, given the wide exit spacing in this segment, it performs a sort of “branching” role with 5, feeding people to local arterials and collectors from the Terwilliger and Capitol Highway exits.

    82nd: probably makes sense.

    MLK/Grand… hrm. The problem is, where does MLK then end? Generally highways should end against other highways, not into nothingness. That would put you onto the Ross Island, as noted, or up to Morrison to the 5 ramps, which almost defeats the purpose of a transfer. But sending trucks and other freight over the frankly frightening Ross Island and onto that cluster of a west side interchange seems like a poor idea, and would force that traffic up onto the Marquam for a second crossing of the river. I don’t think there’s a practical way of doing this one.

    US 30 Bypass: yeah, Columbia Blvd makes more sense. I would then argue for rerouting via MLK to Marine Drive, then back to Lombard to hit the St. Johns Bridge.

    The additions:

    Tualatin-Sherwood/Edy. Maybe, although I think the I-5 connector that is basically dead and buried has muddied this up.

    Roy Rogers, I don’t think so. It serves little freight or through service. It’s basically a commuter route for the backsides of Bull Mountain and Cooper Mountain. It might make sense if we were talking the whole Roy Rogers-175th complex, but 175th has some major alignment tightness on the north side of Cooper Mountain, and becomes a residential arterial or collector the further north one goes.

    One option might be to tie Roy Rogers and Murray Road together by multiplexing a state route over Scholls Ferry. That would be a more through connection. But even then, I’m unclear on how this route has relevance to the statewide network that makes it worth of ODOT transfer.

    Cornelius Pass: yes please. Though its usefulness is slightly limited by termination at US30. (If there were a third Columbia River bridge….)

    Others:

    On a related note, who owns Powell? And does it need to be signed as 26? (I can’t recall if it is signed as such on the roadside, but it is on Google Maps.) Does 26 really need to be on Powell? I think I might argue for drawing 26 up to 84 via one of the exiting N-S surface streets through Gresham or Troutdale.

    More McLoughlin: cut it between Oregon City and 224. Traffic can use I-205 to OR 224

    Chris is right, 43 is extraneous. Transferring it to Multnomah and Clackamas Counties would be easily achieved.

  6. I read somewhere that the reason we still have the U.S. 30 By-Pass designation (and why, pray tell, is the word “bypass” hyphenated on the signs?) is that Multnomah County or the City of Portland did not want to assume responsibility for the St. Johns Bridge.

  7. Alexander,

    Powell is owned by ODOT, all the way from the Ross Island Bridge out to the intersection with Burnside and the Mt. Hood Highway. I remember back in the 1980s, SE Division was signed as US26 between I-205 and Gresham (and for a long time, it was illegal to turn right off the northbound I-205 offramp onto eastbound Powell).

    The East Metro plan probably kills any likelihood of routing US26 up Hogan Road, or some other N/S Gresham thoroughfare, to I-84. One other possibility is that were the Sunrise Corridor to be built and extended out to US26, US26 could be routed on there (and then on 224 and 99E into downtown), but I expect that not to happen for a very long time, if at all.

    Regarding Barbur–there may be a chicken and egg problem. You’re assuming that it should remain a state highway as long as it is a four-lane, high speed thoroughfare. I’m assuming it will remain a four-lane, high-speed thoroughfare as long as it remains a state highway. We’re probably both right, which is why I listed it here–though recent comments from the SW Corridor project seem to indicate that an what happened with Interstate is less likely to happen to Barbur. (Though if the city of Portland goes through with their proposed S Portland redesign; and turns Naito Parkway to a local street near the Ross Island Bridge…well, SOMETHING will have to happen to all that Barbur traffic).

    Regarding Roy Rogers Road. I’ve thought of a a RRR/Murray highway as well, though another possibility would be instead tying it to River Roard. TSH/RRR/River is already an informal bypass between Tualatin and Hillsboro as it is.

  8. BTW, I think if the alternate U.S. 30 is kept on some alignment through N and NE Portland, it should be signed as “Alt U.S. 30” rather than a bypass. Folks coming in from St. Helens are apt to think the “bypass” is a quicker way through town when they see the sign.

  9. Apologies if this is a dupe…the comment I posted previously seems to have disappeared.

    I read somewhere that the reason we still have a U.S. 30 By-Pass (and why, pray tell, is the word hyphenated on the signs??) is that Multnomah County and the City of Portland did not want to assume responsibility for the St. Johns Bridge.

  10. Unlike many states, which have a single numbering system for their state highways (posted route numbers); the state of Oregon has two numbering systems.

    Leave it to ODOT to keep it simple, right? ;)

    I’m speaking mainly of the stretch between US30 and US26, possibly extending as far south as Cornell; but this part of Cornelius Pass also functions as a major regional freight route.

    I’ve often thought Cornelius Pass could serve as a northern extension of OR 219.

    Dan w did a guest post on this, but the current routing of US30 Bypass along N Lombard, is a big mess. For one thing, it’s questionable whether or not US30 needs a bypass in the first place–this is a historical relic from the time when the US30 mainline was Sandy-Burnside-18th/19th-Vaughn-St. Helens Road. With the current routing via the Banfield Freeway, the Fremont Bridge, and NW Yeon, there’s no need for a “bypass”–let alone one that travels on 3-lane surface streets through residential neighborhoods.

    If Bypass 30 is ever rerouted and a new bridge is built over the Willamette west of St. Johns (the latter’s a big “if”, I know) the route could still serve as a bypass of sorts, giving traffic between the north coast — not to mention rapidly growing south Columbia County — and points east of Portland an alternative to the oft-congested stretch of freeway between Fremont Bridge and I205.

    One other possibility is that were the Sunrise Corridor to be built and extended out to US26, US26 could be routed on there (and then on 224 and 99E into downtown), but I expect that not to happen for a very long time, if at all.

    Construction is supposed to start next year on a first-phase two-lane arterial between the current Milwaukie Expressway terminus and SE 122nd; I agree it probably won’t carry the US26 designation anytime soon but here’s hoping ODOT will sign it rather than Powell Blvd as a route to Mt. Hood.

  11. http://bikeportland.org/2012/09/13/odot-scrambles-with-federal-expansion-of-national-highway-system-77202

    According to this article, many arterials within Portland will be considered part of the national highway system starting October 1st, meaning that any changes that deviate from standards would require a lengthy approval process.

    It seems like there needs to be an exception at minimum for roads that have been transferred to city jurisdiction.

  12. Oh man, that is terrible news! Why are they including city roads like 39th and Sandy and Glisan and Halsey in the National Highway System? That would pretty much guarantee no cycle-tracks on any of those roads, because the AASHTO manual recommends against them.

  13. One “rule” I’d like to see is that a state highway should cross a county line, with only a few exceptions (i.e. Oregon 217 would probably qualify). But roads like Tualatin-Sherwood Road would not. Cornelius Pass would.

    I believe with Oregon 43, Portland and Lake Oswego both want to accept responsibility for that road, but West Linn does not because of the amount of deferred maintenance on the road, and that ODOT is not willing to pay West Linn an adequate amount. In general when ODOT turns a road over to local maintenance it is done after a major project (i.e. Farmington Road between Aloha and Beaverton) or with significant compensation, or as part of a jurisdictional swap. In Oregon 43’s case – ODOT is unwilling to rebuild the road, pay West Linn to rebuild it, and there’s nothing West Linn has that ODOT should take. The result would be possibly a highway spur where ODOT has to maintain the road in the city, but the road reverts to city jurisdiction at Lake Oswego boundaries.

    Oregon 219 is another thorn that I believe has no business being a state highway because it’s “regional significance” is highly questionable. It’s a combination of local routes, stringlined together. The stretch of road from Newberg south to McKay Road, coupled with McKay and Ehlen Road to I-5, might make sense as an “intermodal corridor” between I-5 and Newberg, but that’s about it. (Note how in the 1990s, Oregon 219 used to extend to Salem, but was re-routed on various county roads to reach Woodburn; the underlying state highway follows Oregon 214 through Woodburn to Mount Angel and Silverton; Oregon 214 then follows a new highway to meet with Oregon 22.)

    The various state highways in Yamhill County south of McMinnville also are good candidates for county jurisdiction – but Yamhill County’s road department is nowhere up to the snuff as Washington, Clackamas or Marion County’s departments.

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