Aaaaaand We’re Back… Again

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Happy new year everybody! And happy new domain for me!

Unfortunately, I had some financial issues around October 2023 which caused me to lose both the original domains for both Beaver State Roads and its predecessor, ORoads. However, thanks to some wonderful patrons of the site I am once again able to bring back both sites, albeit on the new domain beaverstateroads.org. Truth be told, I prefer this domain to a .net, as I want Beaver State Roads to become a site with multiple collaborators, especially on the wiki.

I would love to thank Rick Cornish and Walter Haight for their financial support via my GoFundMe campaign, as well as the support of many roadgeeks from Oregon and beyond who encouraged me to continue this venture. I appreciate all the help I can get.

“Weigh Station” and Lang State Park HCRH Segments

Photo Tour, Road History, , , , , , ,

The last entry in my November 2019 HCRH trip covers two short segments that aren’t part of the HCRH State Trail: the so-called “weigh station” segment and a tiny portion in Wyeth that until recently dead-ended at some rocks at undeveloped Lang State Park. These might be small, but each piece has its own history that deserves noting.

Continue reading “Weigh Station” and Lang State Park HCRH Segments →

Ruthton Point Viaduct HCRH Segment

Photo Tour, Road History, , , , , ,

When I went to the Columbia Gorge last month to explore old highway segments, the Shellrock Mountain segment wasn’t the only one I checked out — I ended up seeing 4 old sections total. The second section I’m highlighting is also the furthest east I visited: the Ruthton Point Viaduct section, a ¼-mile orphaned segment that includes about 300 feet of viaduct and stone railing. Though a small piece of the viaduct can be seen from I-84 and in a Google Street View photosphere from 2014, they don’t do it justice; the mountainside shields drivers and web-surfers alike from the beauty on the other side.

Continue reading Ruthton Point Viaduct HCRH Segment →

Orphaned HCRH Segment near Shellrock Mountain

Photo Tour, Road History, , , , , ,

Recently I was able to cross off one of my Oregon roadgeeking bucket list items: Rediscovering an orphaned and largely forgotten piece of the Historic Columbia River Highway! This roughly ⅓-mile abandonned segment is just east of Wyeth near Shellrock Mountain, bordered by the Columbia to the north and I-84/the UP tracks to the south. Built over 100 years ago and bypassed in the early 1950s to increase traffic flow and improve safety, it has largely been left to rot inside a grove of evergreen trees next to an older parallel railway alignment closer to the river.

Continue reading Orphaned HCRH Segment near Shellrock Mountain →

Westbound OR-18 at the South McMinnville interchange / US-99W junction, April 1967. The BGSs at the gore point show control cities of "Lincoln CIty" and "Corvallis / McMinnville" for OR-18 and US-99W respectively. Curiously, the "99" is stacked over the "W" on the US-99W shield (OSHD 292-42)

History of the Newberg-Dundee Bypass, Part 1: How We Got Here

Road History, , ,

A month ago, Phase 1 of the Newberg-Dundee Bypass opened between OR-219 southeast of Newberg and OR-99W at the southern end of Dundee. As I mentioned in my bypass opening day photo tour, the planning took decades to get to the point where a new highway rolled along the countryside — and this is just the first phase of three. The good news is that the Oregon legislature funded the design of Phase 2 to the tune of $22 million [^], but it doesn’t look like it’ll start until 2020.

Continue reading History of the Newberg-Dundee Bypass, Part 1: How We Got Here →

Aaaaand We’re Back!

Site News

The site went down on Friday after I tried to do a little bit of “emergency surgery” on the blog due to a malware infestation, and I accidentally cut the wrong thing. I had to more or less completely rebuild the blog from scratch and port over the posts and pages from the old blog to this new one. However, we’re back in action and malware-free — for now. You know how porous WordPress’ security features are.

This little hiccup prevented me from spending meaningful time on creating additional posts this weekend, but I have a few more up my sleeve. I’ll start working on them as I can.

Newberg-Dundee Bypass: Opening Day

Photo Tour, Road Opening, ,

Finally! After decades of planning and years of construction, I have posted to my highways blog!

Oh, and speaking of decades of planning, the Newberg-Dundee Bypass opened to auto and truck yesterday at the crack of 5 AM. To celebrate the momentous and rare occasion of the opening of a brand-new state highway, I took a drive down to Dundee to test out the new road — and take a ton of photos along the way. Rather than spam AARoads’ bypass thread with the 60+ photos I’ve curated (after taking more than 1200!) I figured I’d use this blog as intended — to report on highway developments in the state. Duh.

Continue reading Newberg-Dundee Bypass: Opening Day →