The Boones Bridge

I grew-up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The origin of the word Milwaukee is along the lines of the meeting place of the rivers. The Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic Rivers meet at Milwaukee, and empty into Lake Michigan. In a stretch of the Milwaukee River that's about 2 miles long, there are 17 bridges. In Chicago, there is a two mile stretch that has 20 bridges, a number of them double-decker. To me, crossing a river was never a big deal.

But in the Portland area, you can travel 15 miles down the Willamette River, and only pass 13 bridges -- and one of those bridges will be a railroad-only bridge. The most bridges are in a three mile stretch that has only 7 bridges. The river is something that can't be taken lightly.

South of Portland, I-5 crosses the Willamette River near Wilsonville on a bridge known as the Boones Bridge, named after the old Boones Ferry, which was operated by relatives of the famous Daniel Boone. The bridge was built in 1954. The nearest other bridges are about 10 miles in either direction. Essentially, when the bridge is closed because of an accident, traffic can't move. The routes to the other bridges are not capable of handling very much traffic.

There are other mountain passes in the West that are just as bad, but they're out in the middle of nowhere. The Boones Bridge was on the fringe of the Portland Metro area, but for all practical purposes, it is now part of the Portland Metro area. It not only is a critical link on a major Mexico to Canada corridor. It's part of a commuter route for thousands of people, and a local link to many as well.

Once again there is some talk about building an alternative. This talk is only about 30 years later than when it should have been done, and like the numerous times it was brought up before, it may or may not result in any serious planning. But as long as there's some talk, let me toss in my ideas.

The real solution is going to require many, many miles of new high-capacity highways cutting through farmland. Because of that, it will face major opposition before it dies because of a lack of funding. But the reality is, all that farmland becomes worthless if there are no roads to market.

So the most practical solution -- one that's only a stop-gap at best -- is to build a new bridge between I-205 and OR-99E just south of Oregon City. On the north side of the river, it would cross just east of the Willamette neighborhood of West Linn, and on the south side it would be just west of the Canemah neighborhood. This would require some upgrades on 99E to restore it to four through traffic lanes, plus turning lanes. Traffic signals would be needed at South End Road, New Era Road, and the already planned signal at Territorial Road.

I would also want to see a Canby by-pass along Territorial Road that connects to Knights Bridge, and Arndt Road, along with a northbound exit and southbound entrance to I-5 at Arndt Road.

Back to the long-term solution, we need to look at the OR-211 and OR-219 corridors. 219 will take people as far as North Plains, and the US-26 route to the coast. 211 will take people as far north as Sandy/Boring, and the Mt. Hood Highway, and the yet to be built Sunrise Highway.

Initially the 211 corridor would be more useful, as a connection to the Mt. Hood Highway would provide a new route to the east, by-passing Portland and the Gorge. But there's no practical way to extend this corridor into Washington to ultimately provide a full north-south route.

Eventually, 219 could be extended north through the hills to US-30, and across the river to rejoin I-5. The problem is that opposition to a west-side bypass is greater than the desire to solve the Boones Bridge bottleneck.

Unfortunately I don't see either of these routes being developed despite the great need for one or the other. And some day the Boones Bridge will have some catastrophic failure that will disrupt commerce, and cost the entire region a few billion dollars. And even after that, the bridge will just be rebuilt, and the alternatives will die again.

That's how I see things.