OR 62/Rogue Valley Expressway

[Max Rockatansky]

The Rogue Valley Expressway is a 4.5 mile bypass of Crater Lake Highway connecting White City to Medford.  The Rogue Valley Expressway opened in May of 2019 and features a somewhat strange alignment that doesn't include any interchanges:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2020/12/oregon-route-62-rogue-valley-expressway.html

[hotdogPi]

Inside the article, it calls it both Rogue and Rouge. Wikipedia seems to indicate that Rogue is correct, so you might need to fix the few rouges.

[Max Rockatansky]

Inside the article, it calls it both Rogue and Rouge. Wikipedia seems to indicate that Rogue is correct, so you might need to fix the few rouges.

I went back and got them, "Rogue"  is the correct one.  I usually catch those on proofreads but got hosed by a combination of both being actual words and my proof reading getting talked over. 

[nexus73]

The 62 Bypass is ODOT doing things in half-measures illustrated in full.  There will be interchanges later but they are needed now so trucks can make deliveries to the large shopping complexes along the original 62. Give that the traffic count was higher on 62 than I-5, The 62 Bypass should have been built as I-905 with 3 lanes in each direction. a direct connection to SR 140 and a direct connection to I-5.  I-5 from Grants Pass to Ashland needs upgrading to a 6-lane facility with a further third lane for uphill truck traffic added as I-5 wends its way to Siskiyou Pass south of Ashland.

Rick

[stevashe]

Thanks for the great article, I actually drove this for the first time, but in the Northbound direction, on the way to Klamath Falls for work in October. Too bad I couldn't get any pics due to not having a phone mount with me to safely take pictures while driving though.

For anyone interested, the page about the future connection to I-5 is here, including a pdf of the proposed interchange.
There are a few things I don't like about the interchange, like NB I-5 traffic needing to pass through 2 lights to get on the expressway, but at least it's better than the current situation.

[Max Rockatansky]

Thanks for the great article, I actually drove this for the first time, but in the Northbound direction, on the way to Klamath Falls for work in October. Too bad I couldn't get any pics due to not having a phone mount with me to safely take pictures while driving though.

For anyone interested, the page about the future connection to I-5 is here, including a pdf of the proposed interchange.
There are a few things I don't like about the interchange, like NB I-5 traffic needing to pass through 2 lights to get on the expressway, but at least it's better than the current situation.

Notably the first time I drove through the new Expressway one of the traffic lights next to the Fred Meyer off of I-5 was out.  That level of backup was pretty much an exaggerated rendition of the common place back ups without a proper freeway-to-freeway interchange. 

[Bickendan]

How they should have designed it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_r1yn6YqHF2Y2gaQPOJyN_7RDWtYNVW/view?usp=sharing

[Sub-Urbanite]

How they should have designed it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14_r1yn6YqHF2Y2gaQPOJyN_7RDWtYNVW/view?usp=sharing

Anyone have an extra $100 million lying around?

[Bickendan]

Right?

[Max Rockatansky]

Sure looks like that Motel 6 is hosed if ODOT ever gets around to building that interchange. 

[The Ghostbuster]

Is there any way they could add a grade-separation or a jug-handle interchange to the Poplar Dr./Bullock Rd. intersection? That signaled-intersection looks like it could potentially become a bottleneck for Highway 62 between Interstate 5 and the beginning of the Rogue Valley Expressway.

[Bickendan]

It would cause access issues to Fred Meyer.
At any rate, the expressway would be completely separate from current OR 62, access only from the rebuilt I-5 interchange (see pdf in stevashe's post and my tweaked redesign in my previous post). If Poplar does become a bottleneck, it'll be a temporary one.

[stevashe]

Is there any way they could add a grade-separation or a jug-handle interchange to the Poplar Dr./Bullock Rd. intersection? That signaled-intersection looks like it could potentially become a bottleneck for Highway 62 between Interstate 5 and the beginning of the Rogue Valley Expressway.

Well the plan is to connect the expressway to I-5 with an interchange, so traffic would not need to go through that intersection to get to it - see my previous post. They are planning to add some extra turn lanes though (in fact I'm helping with the planning cost estimate of that right now).