Regional Boards > Pacific Southwest
US 97
corco:
Yes and Yes. It's been rerouted through Bend, no longer going through downtown but instead following the Bend Parkway around Bend, where in the past it went straight through downtown
V'Ger:
The Klamath Falls Freeway still ends at downtown right? I wonder if they will ever extend that freeway.
corco:
They've been talking about upgrading US 97 from Weed all the way up to I-84 from some time now, just because it's a pretty heavily used freight corridor and serves as a good bypass to I-5, connecting California with the fertile soils of Northeastern Oregon and Eastern Washington, but environmental concerns make it unlikely any huge scale upgrade will happen soon.
rebel049:
When US-97 was originally routed in 1926 its south end was at US-99 in Medford, OR. It's south end was changed to US-99 in Weed, CA in 1934.
Tarkus:
Ah, US-97 . . . my favorite highway of all-time. :sombrero:
rebel049 is correct. The old alignment going to Medford is now OR-66.
There was actually another bypass built recently in Redmond, OR, just north of Bend, too. I haven't been on it yet, but from what I've seen of ODOT's documents on it, I believe it's got a couple traffic signals, and an actual interchange where the old alignment (now US-97 BUS) connects into the north end of Canal Blvd. There was a major re-alignment of the US-97/US-26 junction on the north side of Madras as well back in 2005 or 2006, as I recall.
I think the long-term plan is really more to turn it into a limited access expressway in places where the traffic volumes merit it. It already is one in Bend, Redmond, Sunriver and Klamath Falls. I would not be surprised if a bypass were built around Madras or La Pine at some point. There's not really any point in doing major upgrades north of Madras or south of Klamath Falls really.
-Alex (Tarkus)
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