US-26 From Gresham to Mt. Hood Thoughts

[drummer_evans_aki]

For some time now I've had an I-11 proposal floating around in my head that would, rather than entering Portland, would overlap US 97 at least as far north as Yakima.  Easy access to Portland would be made via either I-84 or an upgraded US 26, while the Puget Sound area would have access via I-90 so as not to have to use a congested I-5 to Portland before heading east to I-11.

WRT Hwy 26, replacing the at-grade interchanges at Government Camp and the other winter rec areas with grade-seperated interchanges would go a long way toward addressing the safety and congestion issues along this stretch.  Eventually, I wouldn't mind seeing 26 being moved off its current routing through Gresham (if it retains any designation it should be Business 26 through Gresham all the way to Portland) and transitioned to OR 212 at Boring Jct, and then either to I-205 to I-84 or OR 224 to 99E... especially now that Phase 1 of the Sunrise Corridor is set to begin construction later this year:  http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION1/pages/sunrise/index.aspx

To be honest, there's really no commercial or recreational significance to warrant a freeway routing north from Madras to Yakima overlapping with US-97.

The long term projection for the proposed I-11 is to serve as the "Intermountain West" portion of the U.S. CANAMEX Corridor. So it would make more sense to route it to I-84 in Troutdale as downtown Portland is about 20 miles west and a connection to Seattle 8 miles west.

[doorknob60]

I really like that idea, but US-395 north of Susanville, and especially OR-31, have such low traffic counts that it makes no sense to make a freeway there. If a freeway were to ever be made in Central Oregon, it would likely go from Weed to Madras (and from Madras to either Portland or north/NE to somewhere along I-84)

Well the thing is, the proposed Interstate 11 is, again, to be a part of a CANAMEX corridor. Which would provide an Interstate link with Canada and Mexico. With what I had proposed, it does justify the route passing through those low traffic areas between Susanville and Bend.

This portion of the CANAMEX corridor would actually provide a connection to Alaska as well as Vancouver, BC and Seattle (via I-5, I-205, I-84), Portland, Madras, Redmond, Bend, Susanville, Reno, Carson City, Las Vegas, and Phoenix (via proposed I-11), Phoenix to Tuscon (via I-10), and Tuscon to the Mexican border (via I-19) and because of the cities it would serve, I think it would actually justify passing through the lower traffic volume areas between Susanville and Bend.

Fair enough, I certainly understand the reasoning, and I should have mentioned that I would love to see something like this built at some point. But good luck convincing the already broke (and anti-freeway) Oregon government to spend millions of dollars upgrading some of the state's most remote highways into interstate-standard freeways. But we're venturing into Fictional Highways talk now, where money and practicality don't matter, so I can't fault you for that

[drummer_evans_aki]

It is venturing into Fictional Highways.

It's not the Oregon Government that's against the freeways. It's the people of Portland that are. It gets in the way of their bike paths.

But it is possible that an Interstate Corridor could happen. There are studies that will take place to look at the feasibility of either extending it through Central Oregon or through Western Idaho some time this year.

[sp_redelectric]

It's not the Oregon Government that's against the freeways. It's the people of Portland that are. It gets in the way of their bike paths.

And light rail lines.

[drummer_evans_aki]

It's not the Oregon Government that's against the freeways. It's the people of Portland that are. It gets in the way of their bike paths.

And light rail lines.

Oh yeah!!! That too!!!