Oregon 219. Another winding, ever changing Oregon highway?

[OCGuy81]

On a trip up to Oregon a while back, my wife wanted to visit the Woodburn Company Stores.  While there, I noticed signs for Oregon 219 West, with a destination of St. Paul as the control city.  This struck me as a bit odd for 2 reasons.

1) NO mention of 219 on the exit sign from the 5 northbound.  Exit 271 simply reads "214 - Woodburn".  Not sure if it's mentioned on the 5 SB.  We were coming from Bend to OR 22 where it meets the 5 in Salem.

2) I've previously been in the wine country outside Newberg and Dundee, and see 219 signed as a north/south route where the sign in Woodburn had a west direction. 

Was this a recent re-routing?  I always thought Oregon 219 went through Keizer and into Salem.

[sp_redelectric]

Oregon 219 was routed to Woodburn, IIRC sometime in the 1980s.  I don't know the logistics or politics but I believe it was around the same time Oregon 213 west of Silverton was also given to Marion County.  I don't believe ODOT took over anything in exchange.

You're right - Oregon 219 is not at all mentioned on I-5.  In fact motorists bound for Newberg are actually encouraged to take Exit 278 and use Ehlen, Yergen and Mackay Roads (all of which are county maintained) to access 219.  I'm surprised ODOT doesn't take over those roads in exchange for the current zig-zag routing of 219 from St. Paul to Woodburn.

And Oregon 219 is a north-south route; the "west" signs in Woodburn are incorrect.

I also don't get why Oregon 219 becomes 214 in Woodburn since both roads are part of the Hillsboro-Silverton Highway (why not just keep one route number?), or why Oregon 211 isn't co-signed with 214 from 99E to I-5.  There's no mention of 211 at all on I-5, yet if you take the Woodburn exit, turn right, and keep going straight you'll actually end up on 211, not 214.

[xonhulu]

There's a big rebuild of the Woodburn interchange coming up soon.  Maybe they'll replace the I-5 signage and mention 219, but don't hold your breath!

However, it may be a good thing OR 219's not mentioned at the Woodburn exit: if you're looking to get to Newberg from I-5 northbound, Woodburn is the worst exit to take.  You're better off taking the Aurora/Donald exit or even the Brooks exit.

There's still a relic of OR 219's former routing down River Road into Salem left in north Keizer:

[OCGuy81]

There's a big rebuild of the Woodburn interchange coming up soon.

Might be a good idea.  We visited the stores on a weekday, and it was a mess getting out of there.  The simple diamond interchange seems "overloaded" right now.  Might be nice to revise it.

[xonhulu]

Might be a good idea.  We visited the stores on a weekday, and it was a mess getting out of there.  The simple diamond interchange seems "overloaded" right now.  Might be nice to revise it.

This was one of the worst interchanges in Oregon even before the company stores opened.  It desperately needs to be fixed.

Last I read, the project will involve a substantial detour for OR 214 through the residential neighborhood north of the current street.  As this consists largely of retirees, it doesn't take Nostrodamus to predict the problems that could arise.

IMO, ODOT needs to think bigger in Woodburn.  They should create at least one more interchange, at the Butteville Rd overpass south of the current exit.  They should also build a new southern bypass from that exit to OR 214 and assign 214 to that road.  Then they could extend OR 211 to the existing interchange.

Finally, there could also be an interchange at the Crosby Rd overpass to the north, and Crosby Rd could be extended east to OR 99E.  This would provide another access route to the company stores and relieve the cross-city traffic on existing OR 214.  Since the current highway runs right by a middle school and the high school, I'm surprised there isn't more interest in developing alternate routes across town to divert traffic away from these school zones.

[sp_redelectric]

This was one of the worst interchanges in Oregon even before the company stores opened.  It desperately needs to be fixed.

Last I read, the project will involveone can a substantial detour for OR 214 through the residential neighborhood north of the current street.  As this consists largely of retirees, it doesn't take Nostrodamus to predict the problems that could arise.

IMO, ODOT needs to think bigger in Woodburn.  They should create at least one more interchange, at the Butteville Rd overpass south of the current exit.  They should also build a new southern bypass from that exit to OR 214 and assign 214 to that road.  Then they could extend OR 211 to the existing interchange.

http://www.oregonjta.org/region2/?p=i5-hwy214&expandable=6

I believe the planned alternate route was nixed, because it would have involved cutting through a golf course parking lot and the neighborhood association refused to provide permission.  And ODOT didn't want to go through a nasty court case over a temporary road.

It would have been a very easy fix to turn the Butteville Road overpass into an interchange, and re-route Oregon 214 and 219 there.  Same for Crosby Road or Arney Road.  Then there would be two alternates ready to replace the current single interchange.

Woodburn doesn't really need three interchanges, but it needs more than one.  I could even see ODOT installing "express lanes" for through traffic (two lanes in each direction), completely separated from "Local I-5" that would provide access to the three exits - this would do wonders for when the outlet mall decides to create a three mile backup.  However, this would probably require relocating the Port of Entry further north (or south).

[xonhulu]

I believe the planned alternate route was nixed, because it would have involved cutting through a golf course parking lot and the neighborhood association refused to provide permission.  And ODOT didn't want to go through a nasty court case over a temporary road.

The last I heard of this was in a Statesman Journal article on that parking lot, but I didn't remember that they'd completely abandoned the detour, just had to re-route solely on residential streets.  Maybe I missed a follow-up article (or the Statesman-Journal did).

It would have been a very easy fix to turn the Butteville Road overpass into an interchange, and re-route Oregon 214 and 219 there.  Same for Crosby Road or Arney Road.  Then there would be two alternates ready to replace the current single interchange.

Woodburn doesn't really need three interchanges, but it needs more than one.  I could even see ODOT installing "express lanes" for through traffic (two lanes in each direction), completely separated from "Local I-5" that would provide access to the three exits - this would do wonders for when the outlet mall decides to create a three mile backup.  However, this would probably require relocating the Port of Entry further north (or south).

I agree that Woodburn doesn't need 3 interchanges, but I've heard both of those proposed.  I'd go with Butteville Rd. over Crosby Rd., as recent residential development south of the Wal Mart seems to be creeping that way, some of the industrial/commercial development would benefit from that access, and the potential of a southern bypass would really help relieve current 214 across town.  I only thought of re-routing OR 214 there, but you're right -- it would also make a lot of sense to send OR 219 there, too, and reconfigure the current Butteville Rd - Newberg Hwy intersection to make Butteville the through route.  It would also make sense to extend OR 211 to that junction.

However, I've also seen plans to straighten Arney Rd. and put an interchange at Crosby Rd. as an alternate route to the outlet mall, so I threw that in, as well.  But Butteville would also take some pressure off the existing interchange, so I don't know if at that point Crosby would be needed.