Mount Hood Freeway

The Mount Hood Freeway is a partially completed but never to be finished freeway alignment of U.S. Route 26 and Interstate 80N (now Interstate 84), which would have run through southeast Portland, Oregon. Related projects would have continued the route through the neighboring suburb of Gresham, out to the city of Sandy.

The original plans for the freeway were presented by the Oregon State Highway Department as part of a 1955 report that proposed 14 new highways in the Portland metropolitan area. (Urban planner Robert Moses is often mistakenly credited with the original plan.)

The proposed route was to run parallel to the existing alignment of US 26 on Powell Boulevard, and would have required the destruction of several long-standing Portland neighborhoods and one percent of the Portland housing stock. Plans for the freeway triggered a revolt in Portland in the late 1960s and early 1970s, leading to its eventual cancellation. In addition, other proposed freeways in Portland were also scratched, including Interstate 505. Funds for the project (and other canceled freeways) were spent on other transportation projects, including the first section of the MAX Light Rail system.

When the freeway was canceled, a segment was already completed southeastwards from East Burnside Road and Southeast Powell Blvd in Gresham, continuing to Sandy, Oregon which remains in use today; an unusual divided sweeping turn is visible where an interchange with an unbuilt segment would have been.45°28′24″N 122°23′47″W / 45.47335°N 122.3964°W / 45.47335; -122.3964 (Mount Hood Freeway never-to-be-finished interchange)