2 page version (pdf)

WEP haiku

Osprey Group report ignored
WETLANDS alternative &
2001 "No Build" consensus
City, County, State, Fed governments

June 2006: last gasp?
Federal Highway - new route

blog
articles
dictionary
maps
hidden history

flaws:
laws
lies
traffic
cost

West Eugene Wetlands

WEP alternatives:
$17, $88, or $169 million

WEP would have more
traffic lights than
WETLANDS alternative

hospital siting
downtown boondoggles
disaster preparedness
Region 2050

Eugene NOT #1 Green City

TREES:
Transportation
Energy
Environment
Sustainability

WEP maps

slideshow

• eastern terminus: congestion and continuation to I-105
• 5th / 7th Couplet
• Amazon A-3 channel (west of Seneca)
• Stewart Pond
• Bertelsen Slough
• Beltline / WEP interchange area
• Wal-Mart / Target
• West Lane Memorial Cemetary
• west of Danebo
• Amazon main stem crossing
• Meadowlark Prairie
• western terminus: Goble Lane, Fisher Road or Territorial Highway?

Aerial Photos of WEP area (Summer 2002)

WEP route -- full route

Modified Project - 1997 Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement
"Alternative A Mitigated" - Summer 2003 version
freeway on ramp and off ramp at 6th / 7th Avenues - Spring 2005 version
Couplet Alternative - October 2005 version

Closeups of parts of the project

ODOT maps west of Danebo

through largest BLM nature preservation areas

ODOT map east of Danebo

Couplet Alternative (2005)

ODOT map Beltline Interchange

WEP / Beltline interchange in the wetlands

5th / 7th Couplet

ODOT revives failed, unpopular option rejected in 1986

Eastern Terminus at Highway 99

1997 version (westbound freeway ramp)
early 2005 version (eastbound and westbound freeway ramps)
late 2005 version (Couplet)

Photos of Spring 2005 map - at ODOT's first "public information" session in many years (since 1999?)

Measure 20-53 - November 2001

alleged alternative crafted by pro-WEP bureaucrats at City of Eugene
included 2/3rds of the highway (more illegal than building the whole thing)

WETLANDS alternative to the WEP, map and summary description

very big map (one megabyte file)

WEP would not solve traffic problems - it would not help travel in west Eugene

TransPlan projects canceled to pay for WEP -- Why it would cost over $150 million, not "$88.5 million" - from 2002 analysis

Levels of Service - traffic congestion caused by WEP - from 1997 Supplemental Draft EIS

Traffic counts for WEP - from 1997 Supplemental Draft EIS

Land and Water Conservation Fund lands protected by Bureau of Land Management threatened by ODOT

Western Terminus of WEP (see also "West of Danebo" map link above)

Eastern Terminus of WEP

Beltline / WEP interchange

Phase 1A - Beltline to Seneca

Amazon Creek relocation at WEP / Beltline interchange

Lane Transit District Bus Rapid Transit system (long range goal for region)

1959 plan for "Roosevelt Freeway" (original WEP), Skinner Butte Freeway

1967 plan for Roosevelt Freeway, Beltline through South Hills / ridgeline 

1978 plan for "6th / 7th Freeway" (possible WEP to I-105 connector -- relatively easy to construct, but it would be very expensive because there are lots of businesses in the path, essentially everything in between 6th and 7th)

1978 plan for Whiteaker Bypass (alternate WEP to I-105 connector -- somewhat more difficult to construct than the 6th / 7th Freeway, but fewer business displacements.  It would have more residential impacts, and would be intensely controversial, should it be formally proposed as the WEP's Eastern Terminus)

Crandall - Arambula report:  a new route for the WEP unveiled by a few confused WEP opponents in September 2002.

This option would cost more, pave more wetlands than ODOT's version, would threatens farm and rural neighborhoods, and even included the first segment of a potential Eugene Outer Beltline (the alleged bus-only expressway from Royal Avenue to the Eugene airport).  ODOT wants about 6 miles of expressway, the C&A report proposed 10 1/2 miles. There was not any public input to the design of this WEP version (even most diehard WEP opponents were excluded from this process). It received no public support, and it was quietly dropped in embarrassment.
WEP proponents continue to reference this report in support of their claim that the environmentalists support the idea of an expressway, even though nearly all WEP opponents were aghast at this poorly thought through disaster. The architects who drew the plans for this nutty idea were also working to "greenwash" the relocation of Peace Health hospital to the McKenzie River floodplain while crafting a new, worse option for the WEP.

The primary map on the ODOT website is highly misleading.

• It does not show the large expanse of parklands / 4(f) "resources" that would be decimated by the Porkway.
• It does not show the fact that the "new" route of the WEP would have four intersections (east bound) between Seneca and Highway 99. That is nearly identical to the "5th / 7th Couplet Alternative" rejected in 1985 as unpopular and unworkable.
• It does not show the tight S-curve in the newest version of the WEP just east of Seneca, and has several other mistakes in the exact shape of the highway. Is ODOT's map maker being deliberately sloppy in the "stick figure" version offered to the public?
• It does not show the severing of Roosevelt from Beltline that is contemplated (or rejected)
• It does not show the differences between at grade and grade separated connections (Beltline interchange).
• It doesn't show the severing of Highway 126 west of the UGB.

Surely the nearly $2 million that was injected into the latest round of this "study" can produce a higher quality map than http://egov.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION2/WEP_map1005.JPG Since we now cannot use that money to fix the intersections on West 11th, it would be nice to at least post a decent map that shows Amazon Creek, the BLM (and other public) lands, all of the new intersections proposed for the project, and also has the correct shape of the project.

After receiving several complains from WETLANDS about the low quality of the map on the ODOT website, in January 2006 ODOT posted several high quality maps to the site that are much more accurate and have fewer omissions.