Oregon Route 217
 Oregon Route 217 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 OR 217 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by ODOT | ||||
| Length | 7.52 mi[1] (12.10 km) | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end |  I-5 in Lake Oswego | |||
| North end |  US 26 in Beaverton | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Oregon | |||
| Highway system | ||||
| ||||
Oregon Route 217 (OR 217), also known as the Beaverton-Tigard Highway No. 144, is a north-south controlled-access state highway in Washington County, Oregon. The route travels along the west suburbs of Portland, starting at US Route 26 (US 26) in Beaverton and ending at Interstate 5 (I-5) in Tigard.
OR 217 was initially a route on surface streets which ran from OR 8 in Beaverton and Wilsonville. Construction of the current freeway segment occurred from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, with the highway re-routed onto it afterwards.
Route description
[edit]OR 217 begins at an interchange with US 26 and nearby Barnes Road near the St. Vincent Hospital. It then travels southwest before reaching Walker Road, after which it travels south towards Canyon Road (OR 8) and Beaverton Hillsdale Highway (OR 10), passing the Beaverton Town Center. Directly after the interchange, the highway turns southeasterly before turning back south right before the Denney Road interchange.
The highway intersects Hall Boulevard near the Hall/Nimbus WES station and Scholls Ferry Road, and then proceeds to turn back southeast. The highway continues southeast for the rest of its route, after which it passes Greenburg Road and nearby Washington Square. The highway then intersects OR 99W and 72nd Avenue. After that, it enters an interchange with I-5, with southbound traffic continuing east towards Lake Oswego as Kruse Way.
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. TriMet's Westside Express Service, a commuter rail line, runs parallel to the highway between Tigard and Beaverton.
History
[edit]OR 217 originally ran along surface streets before it was relocated to freeway sections. The highway started at the junction of OR 8 and Hall Boulevard. in Beaverton, continuing along Hall Boulevard through Beaverton, Progress, Metzger, and Tigard for seven 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 five miles (8.0 km) until finally ending at OR 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.[citation needed]
The freeway carrying OR 217 was built in the mid-1960s to early 1970s in several stages, generally beginning at the south end. The full length of the freeway was repaved for the first time in the mid-1980s, along with the replacement of metal median barriers with concrete dividers. By 1985, approximately 60,000 to 68,000 vehicles used OR 217 daily.[2] The intersection of OR 217 and US 26 in Beaverton was replaced with an interchange in 1986 after two years of construction.[3]
Future
[edit]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] The frontage road opened in November 2023.
Exit list
[edit]The entire route is in Washington County.
| Location | mi[1] | km | Exit | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tigard | 7.52 | 12.10 | I-5 – Portland, Salem Kruse Way – Lake Oswego | I-5 exit 292; roadway continues as Kruse Way | |
| 6.69 | 10.77 | 7 | 72nd Avenue | Only accessible from northbound on-ramp coming from Kruse Way | |
| 5.90 | 9.50 | 6 |  OR 99W – Tigard, McMinnville | ||
| 4.95 | 7.97 | 5 | Greenburg Road – Metzger | ||
| Beaverton | 4.27 | 6.87 | 4B |  OR 210 (Scholls Ferry Road) | Signed as exit 4 northbound |
| 3.82 | 6.15 | 4A | Hall Boulevard (OR 141) | Southbound exit and entrance | |
| 3.02 | 4.86 | 3 | Denney Road | Southbound off-ramp to be removed by 2025 | |
| 2.48 | 3.99 | 2B | Allen Boulevard | Southbound on-ramp to be removed by 2025 | |
| 1.76– 1.47 | 2.83– 2.37 | 2A |   OR 8 (Canyon Road) / OR 10 – Beaverton | ||
| 0.91 | 1.46 | 1 | Walker Road | ||
| 0.19 | 0.31 | — | Cedar Hills | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
| 0.01 | 0.016 | — | US 26 (Sunset Highway) – Tillamook, Astoria, Portland | Northbound exit and southbound entrance, US 26 exit 69A | |
| 0.00 | 0.00 | Barnes Road | |||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | |||||
References
[edit]- ^ a b Oregon Department of Transportation. "Public Road Inventory". Digital Video Log. Archived from the original on February 24, 2008. Retrieved April 2, 2008.
- ^ Hill, Jim (May 9, 1985). "Oregon 217 repair work gives motorists' tempers road test". The Oregonian. p. 4M.
- ^ Hill, Jim (March 27, 1986). "Sunset-217 interchange work nears completion". The Oregonian. p. E4.
- ^ Oregon Department of Transportation. "Oregon 217 Auxiliary Lanes Project: Oregon 217". Oregon Department of Transportation. Retrieved May 5, 2022.