The state highway system of the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

is a network of

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

s that are owned and maintained by the Highway Division of 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 Dep ...

(ODOT).

Highways and routes

The state highway system consists of about of state highways, that is, roadways owned and maintained by ODOT. When minor connections and

frontage road A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. A frontage road is often used to provide access to private drive ...

s are removed, that number drops to approximately or around 9% of the total road mileage in the state. Oregon's portion of the

Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

totals .

, ww.oregon.gov/ODOT/Data/Documents/OMR_2006.pdf 2006 Oregon Mileage Report July 2007 Transfers of highways between the state and county or local maintenance require the approval of the

Oregon Transportation Commission 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 Dep ...

(OTC), a five-member governor-appointed authority that meets monthly. These transfers often result in discontinuous highways, where a local government maintains part or all of a main road within its boundaries.

Transferring Roads: Handbook for Making Jurisdictional Transfers
accessed September 2007 Two separate numbering systems are used: routes (e.g. Interstate 84, U.S. Route 26, and Oregon Route 140) are those used by the general public, and their shields are posted on guide signs and maps. These comprise the

Interstate Highways The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

, U.S. Highways, and Oregon state routes (e.g. OR 201). Highways, on the other hand, are used internally by ODOT; they are named and numbered (e.g.

Pacific Highway No. 1 Interstate 5 (I-5) in the U.S. state of Oregon is a major Interstate Highway that traverses the state from north to south. It travels to the west of the Cascade Mountains, connecting Portland to Salem, Eugene, Medford, and other major citie ...

, Willamette Highway No. 18). The two systems, while largely overlapping, are not congruent. Many ''routes'' are signed on streets which are maintained by counties and cities, and thus are not part of the state ''highway'' system at all, e.g. OR 8, whose eastern- and westernmost portions,

Canyon Road Canyon Road (formerly known as Great Plank Road) is a major road and partial state highway, which serves as a connector between Beaverton and Portland, Oregon, United States. It was the first major road constructed between the Tualatin Valle ...

and Gales Creek Road, are not actually state highways. On the other hand, some state ''highways'' are not signed as ''routes'' at all; the Beaverton–Tualatin Highway No. 141 has an official route designation ( OR 141), but remains entirely unsigned. Signed routes may comprise several highways; for instance, OR 47 is overlaid on the Mist–Clatskanie Highway No. 110,

Nehalem Highway No. 102 The Nehalem Highway No. 102 (see Oregon highways and routes) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Oregon that passes through the Nehalem River valley. It runs from U.S. Route 101 (US 101) in Astoria southeast to Oregon Route 8 (OR&nbs ...

, and

Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29 The Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29 (see Oregon highways and routes) is an Oregon highway which passes through the Tualatin Valley, between the cities of McMinnville and Beaverton. Between McMinnville and Forest Grove, the highway is signed as ...

. Likewise, highways may consist of several routes; Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29 comprises parts of OR 8 and OR 47. Every highway is fully state-maintained, and every route is at least partially state-maintained. The OTC designates the paths of these routes as they follow state highways and local roads;

Descriptions of US and OR Routes
July 2007 any U.S. Route or Interstate numbers must also be approved by the

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway design and construction throughout the United ...

(AASHTO). Route signs are maintained by the same agency as the roads they are posted along. If a local government maintains a numbered route, it signs an agreement with the state to keep the signs posted, thus keeping a continuous route for the benefit of travelers.

History

The initial primary state highway system was designated in 1917, initially consisting of 36 named and numbered highways, including some designated earlier that year by the Oregon State Legislature and others added to the network by the Oregon State Highway Commission, the predecessor to the OTC.

History of State Highways in Oregon
January 2007 The first signed routes were the U.S. Routes, in 1926. It was not until 1932 that Oregon Routes were numbered by the OTC and marked by the Oregon State Highway Department;

ODOT Approved Terms & Definitions
, accessed September 2007 every primary state highway that was not already part of a U.S. Route received a route number at that time. Starting in late 1931, the state took over maintenance of many county "market roads", which became secondary state highways with three-digit numbers; some of these were assigned route numbers in 1935, but many others remained unsigned. OR 50 1948

The primary, two-digit route numbers were laid out in a grid system, similar to the

. Odd-numbered routes were north-south and increased in number bearing west, ranging from OR 3 in Wallowa County to OR 53 in Clatsop and Tillamook counties. Even-numbered routes were east-west and increased in number bearing south, ranging from OR 6 in Tillamook and Washington counties to OR 70 in Klamath County. East-west highways in eastern Oregon were given route numbers between OR 74 and OR 86, again increasing in number to the south. Despite this pattern, the internally used highway numbers for primary highways remained ad-hoc. A few route numbers were added after the 1930s, and broke these patterns for continuity reasons: OR 99,

OR 126 Oregon OR 126 (OR 126) is a state highway that connects coastal, western, and central parts of the U.S. state of Oregon. A short freeway section of OR 126 in Eugene and Springfield is concurrent with Interstate 105 (I-105). Route d ...

, OR 138, and

OR 140 Oregon Route 140 (OR 140) is a State highway#United States, state highway in southern Oregon, United States. It is the longest List of highway route numbers in Oregon, state highway in Oregon, running from the community of White City, Oregon (j ...

. Secondary route numbers, three digits starting with 2, were laid out to generally increase bearing west. They ranged from OR 201 in Malheur County to OR 240 in Yamhill County. The internally used highway numbers for secondary highways were also three digit numbers, but were designated by county, from No. 10X in Clatsop County, No. 11X in Columbia County, No. 12X in Multnomah County, etc., until No. 45X in Malheur County. In 2002 and 2003, ODOT decided to assign route numbers to most of the previously unsigned secondary highways. Typically, these new route numbers were identical to the old highway numbers, and range from OR 103 to OR 454. In cases where the highway number was already in use by a different route, the first digit of the new route number was changed to 5 (e.g. Cape Arago Hwy No. 240, designated OR 540 in 2003). Most of these new route numbers are unsigned as of 2015. Two state highways lack route numbers: Century Drive Hwy No. 372 and Midland Hwy No. 420.

Cancelled or demolished highways

The following highways were constructed and/or planned, and then subsequently demolished or cancelled. In some cases, the cancellation resulted from freeway revolts. * I-80N