Oregon Route 217

Oregon Route 217 is an Oregon state highway which serves the western suburbs of Portland. OR 217 is a controlled-access highway which connects U.S. Route 26 with Interstate 5.

Oregon Route 217 marker

Oregon Route 217

Route 217 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by ODOT
Length7.52 mi[1] (12.10 km)
Major junctions
South end I-5 in Lake Oswego
Major intersections OR 99W in Tigard
OR 210 in Beaverton
OR 141 in Beaverton
OR 8 / OR 10 in Beaverton
North end US 26 in Beaverton
Location
CountryUnited States
StateOregon
Highway system
OR 216 OR 218

OR 217 consists of the Beaverton-Tigard Highway No. 144 (see Oregon highways and routes).

Route description

Route 217 at Route 210

For most of its length, OR 217 is a freeway with two travel lanes in each direction, with a third weave lane for exiting and merging, with the exception of its two termini.

The southern terminus of OR 217 is an interchange with I-5. From there, OR 217 proceeds north, through suburbs of Tigard and Beaverton. The northern terminus of OR 217 is an interchange with US 26, at that point a freeway known as the Sunset Highway.

Commuters heading towards either terminus will find themselves on surface streets if they fail to exit. Indeed, southbound travelers wishing to get onto northbound I-5 have to turn left at a traffic signal; southbound travelers of I-5 wishing to become northbound travelers of OR 217 must turn right at a traffic signal at the end of the off-ramp. Access from I-5 North to OR 217 North used to be routed through a 270-degree ramp. A major rebuild of the I-5/OR 217 junction in 2001 resulted in the construction of a flyover ramp, relieving some of the severe congestion associated with the old design.[2] This reconstruction also left room for future freeway-to-freeway connections in other directions.

Traffic on OR 217 is frequently heavy, especially during rush hour. The freeway has several major design issues, one of which is the many closely spaced on and off-ramps (sometimes less than 1/4 mile) that result in conflict between entering and exiting traffic. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has started working on an Auxiliary Lanes Project, but is also investigating a major overhaul of this route.

TriMet's Westside Express Service, a commuter rail line, runs parallel to the highway between Tigard and Beaverton.

History

Before the freeway was completed in the late 1960s to the 1970s, OR 217 ran along surface streets. It originally started at the junction of OR 8 and Hall Blvd. in Beaverton, continuing along Hall Boulevard through Beaverton, Progress, Metzger, and Tigard for 7 miles (11 km) until it reached Durham Road. There, it took a left onto Durham Road, following it for about 0.8 miles (1.3 km) until the intersection with Boones Ferry Road. It remained on Boones Ferry Road through Durham, Tualatin, and Wilsonville for about 8 miles (13 km), crossing the Willamette River on the Boones Ferry and continuing south for another 5 miles (8.0 km) until finally ending at Oregon Route 99E at Aurora, for a grand total of about 20 miles (32 km) or so. The southern terminus was scaled back to Wilsonville (current I-5 exit 286) with the completion of I-5 to Portland. This older highway, called the Beaverton-Aurora Highway, was kept in the state highway system as the Beaverton-Tualatin Highway No. 141, and was recently given the route designation OR 141. The intersection of OR 217 and US 26 in Beaverton was replaced with an interchange in 1986 after two years of construction.[3]

Future

ODOT started construction on the Auxiliary Lanes Project in December 2021, which aims to add a southbound auxiliary lane from Exit 2A to Exit 6 and a northbound auxiliary lane from Exit 6 to Exit 4. The Allen Boulevard southbound on-ramp and Denney Road southbound off-ramp will be removed for a new frontage road being constructed in place of it.[4]

Exit list

The entire route is in Washington County.

Locationmi[1]kmExitDestinationsNotes
Tigard7.5212.10 I-5 Portland, Salem
Kruse Way – Lake Oswego
I-5 exit 292; roadway continues as Kruse Way
6.6910.77772nd AvenueOnly accessible from northbound on-ramp coming from Kruse Way
5.909.506 OR 99W Tigard, McMinnville
4.957.975Greenburg Road – Metzger
Beaverton4.276.874B OR 210 (Scholls Ferry Road)Signed as exit 4 northbound
3.826.154AHall Boulevard (OR 141)Southbound exit and entrance
3.024.863Denney RoadSouthbound off-ramp to be removed by 2025
2.483.992BAllen BoulevardSouthbound on-ramp to be removed by 2025
1.76–
1.47
2.83–
2.37
2A OR 8 (Canyon Road) / OR 10 Beaverton
0.911.461Walker Road
0.190.31Cedar HillsNorthbound exit and southbound entrance
0.010.016 US 26 (Sunset Highway) Tillamook, Astoria, PortlandNorthbound exit and southbound entrance, US 26 exit 69A
0.000.00Barnes Road
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

Template:Attached KML/Oregon Route 217
KML is not from Wikidata
  1. Oregon Department of Transportation, Public Road Inventory Archived 2008-02-24 at the Wayback Machine (primarily the Digital Video Log), accessed March 2008
  2. compare before and after satellite photos
  3. Hill, Jim (March 27, 1986). "Sunset-217 interchange work nears completion". The Oregonian. p. E4.
  4. "Oregon Department of Transportation : Oregon 217 Auxiliary Lanes Project : Oregon 217 : State of Oregon". www.oregon.gov. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
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