Oregon Route 99E Business (OR 99E Business) is a

business route A business route (or business loop, business spur, or city route) in the United States is a short special route that branches off a parent numbered highway at its beginning, continues through the central business district of a nearby city or to ...

through

Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, w ...

for

Oregon Route 99E Oregon Route 99E is an Oregon state highway that runs between Junction City, Oregon and an interchange with I-5 just south of the Oregon/ Washington border, in Portland. It, along with OR 99W, makes up a split of OR 99 in the northern part ...

, which bypasses downtown via

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...

(I-5). A portion of this highway was originally planned to be a

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

, signed as Interstate 305; however the proposed freeway was cancelled after community opposition.

Route description

The northern end of OR 99E business is at an

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...

with OR 99E north of the Salem area. It runs west for approximately along Salem-maintained Chemawa Road to an interchange with I-5 and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway (designated by ODOT as Salem Highway #72 and formerly named Salem Parkway) near Keizer. The highway then runs southwest along the parkway for approximately , then turns south along the Commercial Street/Liberty Street couplet for another . In downtown Salem, the highway skirts downtown along Front Street, where it interchanges with and shares an alignment with

Oregon Route 22 Oregon Route 22 is an Oregon state highway that runs between the Oregon Coast community of Hebo, Oregon, Hebo, to a junction with U.S. Route 20 in Oregon, U.S. Route 20 near Santiam Pass in the Cascade Mountains. OR 22 traverses several hi ...

. OR 22/OR 99E then leave downtown via Pringle Parkway, skirting the southern edge of the

Willamette University Willamette University is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college with locations in Salem, Oregon, Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United ...

campus, then, via a pair of ramps, interchange with Mission Street. The highways then head southeast for until an interchange with I-5 and OR 99E. This interchange marks the end of OR 99E Business; OR 22 continues to the east along North Santiam Highway.

History

The section which is now Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway was originally planned to be a freeway (Salem Freeway #65), which was to be signed as Interstate 305. After originally being conceived only as a four-mile (6 km) spur of I-5 into downtown Salem, the I-305 project was modified and expanded by about to include a new bridge across the Willamette River to meet OR 22, providing increased access to Polk County. It was designated as Salem Freeway Highway No. 65 by the state government in 1968. Local opposition cancelled the

in 1976 and the state government requested its withdrawal from the Interstate System in 1977. Despite the cancellation of I-305, the parkway was later built as an undivided expressway. It was renamed by the Salem City Council from Salem Parkway to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway (signed as Dr. MLK Jr Pkwy) in 2022. The original alignment of OR 99E through Salem came from the south off I-5 onto Commercial Street and left to the north on Portland Road to cross I-5. In May 1986, due to Salem Parkway opening north of downtown, OR 99E was rerouted onto I-5 around Salem, and its old route south of downtown, along with the Salem Parkway and Chemawa Road north of downtown, became OR 99E Business. In March 1992, OR 99E Business was moved onto OR 22 southeast from downtown. A section of OR 219 served part of this corridor, traveling on Broadway and River Road, until it was truncated.

Future

The

Oregon Department of Transportation The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway De ...

(ODOT) and the City of Salem are considering building an additional bridge across the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

, north of the current Marion and Center Street bridges (which carry OR 22 across the river, and are the only river crossings for motor vehicles in the city). The exact location and alignment of this proposed new bridge and its connecting routes is presently under study, but generally, the routes being considered would connect to OR 99E Business at or near the southern end of Salem Parkway on the river's eastern shore, and provide access to both OR 22 and OR 221 on the western side. Such a route would be similar to that proposed for I-305.

Major intersections

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Route 099E Business 099E Business U.S. Route 99 Transportation in Marion County, Oregon Keizer, Oregon Transportation in Salem, Oregon