Oregon

[xonhulu]

In a perfect world, the inevitable replacement of the Lewis & Clark Bridge would include a direct connection to Tennant Way.

I recall hearing that suggestion years ago: build a new bridge further east and tie it directly into 432.  I was all for it, but I remember downtown Longview businesses being less-than-thrilled over it.

But short of bridge failure, I don't think there's any great sense of urgency for a new span.  In fact, I read someone from WSDOT stating the agency's position was that with regular maintenance, the bridge should last indefinitely.

Also, I feel like Hillsboro would have been a better control city for US 30 than Portland (with Portland and Seattle sharing the 433 sign) but YMMV

I suppose I shouldn't argue, since I did go on to cross over Cornelius Pass to Hillsboro on my way home yesterday.  But I'd still give the edge to Portland, as it's the next major destination after St Helens on US 30 itself. But I do get your point, if you mean that Portland-bound traffic would probably get there sooner if they crossed over to I-5 here.

[Bickendan]

It's also nice that ODOT officially acknowledges that WA 433 physically enters Oregon.

[pderocco]

It's also nice that ODOT officially acknowledges that WA 433 physically enters Oregon.

Does that mean Washington maintains that bit? I rather doubt it.

[Bickendan]

The entire bridge itself is WSDOT maintained, and is WA 433.
The roadway between the bridge deck and US 30 is ODOT, and iirc is inventoried as ORH 92.

[Sub-Urbanite]

FWIW the WSDOT route log says:

BEG ROUTE MAIN ROUTE OREGON ST LINE TO SR 432

[bing101]

Oregon plans for making I-5 a toll road. 

[pderocco]

Oregon plans for making I-5 a toll road.

If they did, it wouldn't surprise me if all-electric vehicles were exempted.

[jakeroot]

All right, it took me several months, but I finally passed through Rainier and got a photo of that new overhead:



This is on eastbound 30, and it's the only sign that mentions 433.  The advance signage on EB and the overhead at the offramp from WB 30 still just read "Longview/Seattle."

Again, I'd assert some mention of "TO I-5," either in addition to or in place of 433, would've been more useful to travelers.

While there is a sign stating "Through Traffic Keep Left" before it, this sign is the first specific mention that the right lane is exit only, and you only see it after rounding a curve. 

The right lane resumes again immediately after the exit gore, which surprised me.  I expected that lane to be removed between the off-ramp and on-ramp so the latter would no longer have a forced merge. The traffic entering EB 30 passes through a tight curve that makes it hard to accelerate up to highway speed before that merge, so having that ramp just become the new right lane would've made more sense to me.

I should also note there is no physical barrier preventing a car from just driving through on the old right lane, just pavement markings.

One other minor thing that maybe I only noticed (or care to notice). British Columbia is the only other places where you might see a Washington route marker on an extruded panel guide sign (perhaps Idaho, too). Washington uses increment panel guide signs.

For the layman, those horizontal lines on the sign are indicative of extruded panel construction, which is the norm in Oregon and most states/provinces, but not what WA uses.

[ClassicHasClass]

Oregon plans for making I-5 a toll road.

If they did, it wouldn't surprise me if all-electric vehicles were exempted.

Is this still accurate?

https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/news/oregon-gov-kotek-kills-i-5-i-205-per-mile-tolling-but-proposed-i-5-bridge-tolls-remain/

[Sub-Urbanite]

Tolling on I-205 is dead for now. There's no way to pay for the expansion between the Abernethy Bridge and I-5, but local residents seem fine with the trade-off of keeping the traffic jam in exchange for not paying tolls on the road.

Congestion pricing through most of the Portland area is also dead for now. Hard to convince people that paying more for roads is a good idea, even if it means EV drivers continue to "ride free."

Tolls on the Interstate Bridge are a required part of the finance plan. They cover about $1.2b of the construction cost – which is basically the "bridge" portion of the bridge. Light rail is paid through federal match, on-land freeway improvements are paid through ODOT and WSDOT allocations.

There's still a push from the far-left for congestion pricing on the I-5 bridge, but their main motivation is to create enough political controversy (including on the right) that the bridge replacement falls apart again.

Oregon plans for making I-5 a toll road.

If they did, it wouldn't surprise me if all-electric vehicles were exempted.

Is this still accurate?

https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/news/oregon-gov-kotek-kills-i-5-i-205-per-mile-tolling-but-proposed-i-5-bridge-tolls-remain/

[Bruce]

Clackamas County is planning an extension of the Sunrise Expressway through Happy Valley by 2035. The online open house has some renders:

[pderocco]

It would have been nice of them to have provided a map.

It looks like 224 will continue to be the surface road, and 212 will be the expressway to its north. But what happens west of 112nd Ave? Do the two existing roads swap their numbers, and have a short multiplex between 224 and I-205? Or do they do an even shorter reverse multiplex on 122nd Ave? Or is the first pic simply wrong, and the expressway will be called 224?

[stevashe]

It would have been nice of them to have provided a map.

It looks like 224 will continue to be the surface road, and 212 will be the expressway to its north. But what happens west of 112nd Ave? Do the two existing roads swap their numbers, and have a short multiplex between 224 and I-205? Or do they do an even shorter reverse multiplex on 122nd Ave? Or is the first pic simply wrong, and the expressway will be called 224?

The last pictures shows the expressway contributing to 172nd avenue, which is after the end of the current 224 concurrency, so I'm guessing the numbers must swap somewhere.

[Bruce]

Totally forgot about this project, but the Bend Parkway alignment for US 97 has been extended north: https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=21229

[xonhulu]

Totally forgot about this project, but the Bend Parkway alignment for US 97 has been extended north: https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=21229

I've driven on it a couple times since the extension opened.  Big improvement.

Unfortunately, still no direct access from EB US 20 to SB 97, and AFAIK no plans to address that despite frequent traffic backups where 20 merges onto 3rd Ave/BUS 97.

[pderocco]

There's a little turnaround just past that merge. They could restore part of the piece of US-97-BL that they dug up, and connect it to NB US-20 with another turnaround. That would be a major zig-zag, but still more or less free-flowing, with no light.

[Great Lakes Roads]

https://www.portofhoodriver.com/port-of-hood-river-to-implement-fully-electronic-tolling-starting-april-1

The Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge will be going cashless starting on April 1st...

[pderocco]

It didn't say whether it would use plate readers or what.

[vdeane]

It didn't say whether it would use plate readers or what.

Transponder plus toll by plate/bill by mail is fairly standard for AET at this point.  I checked their website and they do indeed have a transponder - one that is only accepted on one other bridge.  Between this and the I-5 bridge soon getting tolls, the west coast might want to start looking at interoperability.

[pderocco]

It didn't say whether it would use plate readers or what.

Transponder plus toll by plate/bill by mail is fairly standard for AET at this point.  I checked their website and they do indeed have a transponder - one that is only accepted on one other bridge.  Between this and the I-5 bridge soon getting tolls, the west coast might want to start looking at interoperability.

I wonder if multiple transponders on your windshield interfere with each other, the way multiple NFC credit cards in your wallet do.

[Bruce]

It didn't say whether it would use plate readers or what.

Transponder plus toll by plate/bill by mail is fairly standard for AET at this point.  I checked their website and they do indeed have a transponder - one that is only accepted on one other bridge.  Between this and the I-5 bridge soon getting tolls, the west coast might want to start looking at interoperability.

Given that very very few people are going to be encountering these toll systems in the same trip, it's unlikely. Maybe Oregon can adopt Good to Go, but really all of these systems should have removable transponders (such as GtG's flex passes) to avoid interference issues.

[vdeane]

It didn't say whether it would use plate readers or what.

Transponder plus toll by plate/bill by mail is fairly standard for AET at this point.  I checked their website and they do indeed have a transponder - one that is only accepted on one other bridge.  Between this and the I-5 bridge soon getting tolls, the west coast might want to start looking at interoperability.

Given that very very few people are going to be encountering these toll systems in the same trip, it's unlikely. Maybe Oregon can adopt Good to Go, but really all of these systems should have removable transponders (such as GtG's flex passes) to avoid interference issues.

You'd still need to have multiple accounts and deal with switching transponders, though.  Are you telling me that people in Portland might not occasionally take a trip to Seattle, or use one of these bridges?  Over on the east coast, the whole point of E-ZPass is that you don't have to maintain multiple accounts or switch transponders, and Congress passed a nation-wide interoperability mandate for that reason as well.  Non-interoperable toll facilities that don't take cash or credit card on site are also discriminatory to non-locals.

I think it's interesting how residents in states with transponders that aren't interoperable with anything are so passionate about not being interoperable.  First Michigan, now the west coast...

[ClassicHasClass]

If that's the case, FasTrak says hi. There are probably way more FasTrak transponders/stickers total than other systems on the west coast owing to California's population.

[Bruce]

You'd be hard pressed to find Washingtonians and Oregonians in favor of importing a Californian system and ceding control to them. Not that our current setup is better, but keeping things local and free of Californian influence has been the regional mantra for decades.

[pderocco]

You'd be hard pressed to find Washingtonians and Oregonians in favor of importing a Californian system and ceding control to them. Not that our current setup is better, but keeping things local and free of Californian influence has been the regional mantra for decades.

I don't think that would cede any control to California. They'd just be offering payment collection services.