Despite the obvious choice, in the mid-nineties, ODOT selected the worst possible route, which is now mired in 12-plus years of mind-numbing bureaucratic planning. And there is no end in sight.
Do you know the difference between the much-talked about the ODOT selected Newberg Dundee (N-D) bypass route and what has become known as the proposed “Regional Bypass” route?
The differences is the single critical debate that will put you in the know as to the real solution for long term clear sailing travel through the region. The ODOT/ Parkway Committee “Bypass Route”
The proposed N-D Bypass that has been being promoted from within a small select group known as the Parkway Committee along with ODOT (Oregon Dept. of Transportation) have selected a route that begins at the base of Rex Hill on 99 W and cuts a wide path in a SW direction.
The route just misses the new Newberg Hospital, and it cuts off part of the new golf course near the hospital. According to ODOT reports, this route cuts through several hundred homes and properties, (mostly new homes).
It crosses over 23 green areas, brooks, streams, and creeks.
ODOT says it will require over 70 bridges to build (culverts aren't allowed in the new environmental utopia).
The path also slices both Newberg and Dundee off from its most important asset, the Willamette River. This selected route passes through and over some very unstable and vast lands above and around Chehalem Creek.
Water well logs from that area indicate that one must drill down 700 feet to get to a firm footing to support such a bridge. (The bridge will likely need to be 1/2 mile long!).
The route cuts some of Dundee and Newberg's best farm lands into patches of ground. Some of these properties have irrigation water rights dating to the year 1800 and older.
The City of Dundee has potable water wells along the proposed route that are drilled in unstable ground. It is such that by adding additional surface-vibration and pressure from a nearby freeway, it could cause damage to these valuable wells.
This list of negatives associated with this route (which seems to be an obsession) by the Parkway Committee Group and Yamhill County Commissioner and Committee member Leslie Lewis is nothing short of mind boggling.
Those in ODOT that are given the charge of helping to plan and build new roads have designed into this route overpasses, and interchanges that would be befitting to a Los Angles freeway system!
Structures fifty-plus feet in the air were proposed for the end of the route closest to Dayton. To envision this kind of height, one could fit the domed capitol building in Salem under the highest overpass in the proposed plan that was put forward by ODOT planners!
Can someone please tell me how an EIS (Environmental Impact statement—required on projects including federal dollars) could even be considered for this particular route...let alone be approved?
As long as the ODOT continues to do business at arms length with companies (many out of state), Parametrix (Washington state), Macquarie Infrastructure Group (Australian government pension fund, etc.), time drags on and no one at ODOT is accountable for the waste of money and lack of any results.
After around twelve years of planning and nothing to show for it—and no end of planning in sight, is ODOT and the governor playing us for fools?
Can the conclusion also be drawn that ODOT picked the worst possible route...most expensive and with the worst environmental impact, in order that the project be drawn out and so that the construction never begin?
With a dominance of environmentalists on the Oregon Transporrtation Committee, which decides which transportation projects will be done, one might argue that the ODOT bureaucracy and the environmental obstructionists are one and the same.
“The Regional” Route
This route would start at I -5 and the Donald Exit (the one with truck stops on the West Side). It would proceed westward on McKay Road, until McKay ends at Highway 219.
Rather than hitting the dead end, the Regional would continue straight through on the fringe of farmland for another approximate five miles of new road to just north of Dayton on Highway 18.
Only one bridge across the Willamette River would be necessary, at a narrow point, (this four land bridge would be similar in length to the one currently being built just outside of the City of Lafayette to replace an aging bridge there.)
The route ends up at a point just north of Dayton and the Yamhill River, near to the Dayton RV Park. The advantages of the “regional”:
- No lights (and only one at McMinnville hospital--in the entire trip from Portland to Lincoln City!)
- No access or egress to adjacent farmlands
- No frontage roads needed
- Few or no wet lands to be considered
- This route could be accessed by the Newberg Commuters at 219 just east of St. Paul and those from the west (Dundee, Lafayette, McMinnville, Amity, Sheridan, Willamina.
- Our friends at the Pacific coast could enter and depart from this route at the point just north of the Yamhill River Bridge.
- Favored by many St Paul Farmers that have farming operations on the West Side of the Willamette.
Friends, this need for a Regional bypass is not just about Newberg and Dundee! It is about all of Yamhill County and beyond, including our neighbors at the coast. If we expect to attract or keep commerce in Yamhill County, this Regional route must be constructed...and soon.
After all, Commerce is the lifeblood of this country. Those in community development work hard to find and attract businesses to Yamhill County and are usually unsuccessful due to the poor and inadequate infrastructure of our road and rail system.
Please pay attention to this, or expect to pay in excess of $800 million for Leslie Lewis and her Parkway Committee's supported route.
The ODOT ND bypass will still leave us with 30-plus stop lights between 99 W at East Newberg and I-5 Tigard.
There is at least one sizable and reliable Oregon contractor with bonding capability to construct a bridge across the Columbia River that says he could construct a good two lane road following as much public owned right of way as possible for the Regional Route.
His estimate includes a four-lane bridge crossing the Willamette River for approximately $200 million (maybe less).
His cost estimate is less right of way costs, engineering and whatever EIS federal regulations might might require.
Do you want to go to the coast and not take the entire day to get there--and then again gettting home? Or may God forbid, how can our coastal friends get away from the coastline due to a tsunami or some other disaster on our current highway system from I-5 and 101?
Government's highest purpose is for the protection of people. The current governor, transportation committee, and ODOT have combined to perpetuate daily misery for commuters.
They have also failed miserably in emergency planning for the safety and well being of Oregon's citizens.