I-5 Baldock Freeway reconstruction, just north of Terwilliger Curves

[Bickendan]

ODOT's in the middle of a pair of bridge replacements along the Baldock Freeway as I-5 climbs into the West Hills from downtown Portland toward the nefarious Terwilliger Curves. Southbound will be gaining a truck lane as a result.

ODOT has been digging out the hills on the freeway's west flank and Barbur Blvd's east flank, relocating the southbound lanes where the embankment was, with a pair of temporary bridges over the ravines that both Barbur (old US/OR 99W) and the Baldock cross. The northbound lanes will be shifted onto the old southbound lanes, and the northbound bridges destroyed and rebuilt. Once rebuilt, the northbound lanes will shift back to their original alignment, and the old southbound bridges will be destroyed and rebuilt, allowing the southbound lanes to shift back to their original alignment, with the added truck lane (a 4+3 configuration for the freeway). No word on whether the hills will be reconstructed...

[xonhulu]

I thought part of the impetus for the project was to rebuild/strengthen the retaining walls holding back the hillside, in addition to the bridge replacement.

[Bickendan]

That may be the first phase of the project then, while clearing out the ROW for the temporary southbound lanes.

[rmichael87]

They're also replacing the retaining wall that was built for the long-vanished Oregon Electric Railway - you can see "1915" imprinted in the concrete, which predates I-5 by several decades.

[sp_redelectric]

They're also replacing the retaining wall that was built for the long-vanished Oregon Electric Railway - you can see "1915" imprinted in the concrete, which predates I-5 by several decades.

There is a plaque on the Highway 99W/Barbur Boulevard overcrossing over Multnomah Boulevard that states it is the overcrossing of the Oregon Electric Railway.  The OE used the I-5 and Multnomah Boulevard right-of-ways to Garden Home.  To this day there is still a "Railroad Avenue" in Garden Home where the line to Beaverton went - the ROW is now a bike/walking trail and the footings for one trestle still exist underneath the current-day bike/ped bridge span.