Salem--The Baldock Freeway, between Portland and Salem, the nation's first toll-free rural freeway, has now been in use four years. During that time millions of Oregon motorists using this example of modern highway engineering have become "freeway conditioned."
    Motorists have become accustomed to the convenience of the steady speeds that so quickly reduces distance with no apparent effort. They have learned to like the secure feeling that comes with the knowledge that no car or pedestrian is likely to dart into their path. And motorists have eagerly used each new section of freeway as project after project has been completed and opened to traffic.
    The Pacific freeway, of which the Baldock is but a section, has been extended past Salem to Albany, and work on the 42-mile Albany to Eugene section is in its final phase. All of this new roadway is a part of the federal interstate freeway program.
Focused on Southern Area
    Now attention is being focused on the area to the south--between Eugene and the California line.
    This section of the Pacific freeway proves once again that designing and building a new highway, whether a complete relocation, a realignment, or widening of an existing line, is involved, is not an overnight accomplishment.
    Surveys must be made, data analyzed, designs decided upon and contracts let before any visible progress can be made. And the best of plans will not reach the contract stage if funds are not made available to the State Highway Commission.
Undergoing Changes
    And so it has been in the area south of Eugene. There, as part of the state highway department's statewide program of highway improvement, Highway 99 has been undergoing an almost constant series of changes designed to eliminate points of congestion and to make the route safer for the user.
    This program was under way long before the Federal Aid Highways Act of 1956 and 1958 were put into effect. The monies made available by the acts only accelerated the program.
    Five new sections between Eugene and Grants Pass are under construction or have been completed to "freeway standards" since the accelerated program began. The freeway, or interstate standards as they are known to highway engineers, are the design minimums set up by the U.S. bureau of public roads to govern highway construction throughout the 50 states.
Requirements of Standards
    The standards require the separation of opposing traffic lanes and full access control. The median or dividing area between lanes may vary from a minimum of four feet in urban and mountainous areas to a maximum of 76 feet in flat or rolling country. Individual traffic lanes are 12 feet wide. All weather shoulders generally ten feet wide on the outside and six feet on the inside also are provided.
    Driving south from Eugene the first of these areas is encountered seven miles from Cottage Grove. Here between Comstock and Anlauf the modern two-lane highway, realigned only a few years ago, is being widened to meet interstate standards.
    White Brothers Construction Company of Walla Walla, Washington, has the grading and paving contract for this project, which is about 65 percent complete. The Bear Creek bridge, which is located within the 1.38-mile section under contract, has already been widened by the InterCity Sand and Gravel Company, of Eugene.
    Continuing southward on Highway 99, the second section is encountered between Oakland and Sutherlin junctions. This is a 3¾-mile widening job, with White Brothers Construction Company doing the grading and paving. Two bridges, the Calapooya and Stearns Lane structures, have also been widened by the Tom Lillebo Construction Company of Reedsport. Work on this project is almost completed.
South of Roseburg
    Farther south, below Roseburg, a 1¾-mile section has been completed between Shady and Roberts Creek. A new bridge was included in the construction.
    Nearing Myrtle Creek the two-lane highway swells to "interstate" proportions. This section is 9⅓ miles long, and stretches to Canyonville in a long series of easily driven curves.
    A multi-million-dollar project, the Myrtle Creek-Canyonville freeway was constructed on an entirely new location requiring two bridges over the Umpqua River, two railroad grade separation and seven highway grade structures. The new route replaces an old length of narrow highway originally constructed in the 1920s, and cuts driving time between the two points by four minutes.
    Approaching Grants Pass, an equally beautiful new section of freeway makes the final 9¼ miles of the journey to that city a pleasure to drive. This section, like Myrtle Creek, was constructed on an entirely new location, and was completed and opened to traffic in 1958. The four smooth traffic lanes, five new bridges and two highway grade separation structures involved in the project cut the driving time between Jumpoff Joe Creek, a small stream located three miles south of Sexton Mountain, and Grants Pass by a full five minutes.
    The 25 miles of freeway now in use or under construction between Eugene and Grants Pass will cost more than $11,000,000, including right of way. These new sections, coupled with the improved two-lane highway, which incorporates passing lanes where needed, make the 140-mile trip safer and easier to drive.
Full-Length Freeway
    Eventually the entire length of this highway will be four lanes as rapidly as construction funds are made available. In the meantime programs for which monies are available are being put into effect in the area between Grants Pass and Medford where the need for improvement is critical.
    At present, the new four-lane highway into Grants Pass is being extended past that city, parallel to and along the north bank of the Rogue River as far as Evans Creek.
    Until the new freeway is completed, traffic from Highway 99 will continue to be routed through Grants Pass. Part of the back pressure caused by the limited capacity of the Caveman Bridge over the Rogue River was relieved when the new Seventh Street bridge was opened to northbound traffic last September. Work is more than three fourths complete on the Redwood Highway interchange, a million dollar construction job under way just south of Grants Pass.
Access to Freeway
    When the new freeway is opened, interstate traffic will no longer use the old route. Local and coastbound traffic will have access to the freeway at two interchanges located immediately to the north and east of Grants Pass.
    Morrison-Knudsen Company is grading a 5½-mile section of the new freeway between the north interchange at Grants Pass and the Jackson County line. The contract also includes the grading of the east interchange. The grading of the north interchange is being done by the Hughes-Dodd Company and the Tru-Mix Company, both of Medford. A single structure for this interchange is being built by Peter Kiewit and Sons, of Vancouver, Wash.
    Grading of the three-mile section between the Josephine County line and Evans Creek in Jackson County is being handled by the Earl L. McNutt Company, of Eugene. The combined cost of these two sections will be around S6,850,000.
    Work is programmed, but not yet contracted, on the section between Evans Creek and Homestead on the Rogue River. This work, which is due to be contracted in 1960 if funds are available, will include the construction of a pair of 958-foot reinforced concrete bridges. The bridges will carry freeway traffic over the Rogue where it can join the existing two-lane highway at Rock Point.
    If schedules can be held, and are not slowed by the lack of funds, the Grants Pass to Rock Point freeway should be opened to traffic by the fall of 1961.
    The existing highway between Rock Point and Seven Oaks, just to the north of Medford, will continue to be used at that time.
    A 412 mile section of the new Medford freeway is now under construction between Seven Oaks and Table Rock rd. Peter Kiewit and Sons is grading this section which is being located on an entirely new line. This contract includes the grading of interchanges at Seven Oaks and Central Point.
Freeway Extension
    When funds become available, the freeway will be extended to the Crater Lake Highway. An interchange will also be constructed at this point. Paving will be held up on the section now being graded until the connection is made at the Crater Lake highway. At that time the entire unit between Seven Oaks and Crater Lake Highway will be paved and opened to traffic.
    Plans for the extension of the freeway through the city of Medford have not been finalized at the present time, but the programming of this work is assured for the not too distant future. In the meantime, the existing facilities will continue to carry traffic through Medford to Ashland and on to the state line.
    State highway officials have announced that the original target date for four-laning the entire interstate highway system in the state has been moved up by the delay experienced during the summer of 1959 while Congress argued the pros and cons of the gas tax. The exact date for completing the interstate system in Oregon is now indefinite, but surveys, studies and plans will be continued and projects started as funds are available, the chief engineer pointed out.
Medford Mail Tribune, November 12, 1959, page 22


Medford Mail Tribune, February 12, 1961, page 6






    Grading of a 7.4-mile section of the interstate freeway should be completed by this fall, State Highway Engineer Bill Brown said last week in Ashland.
    Cost of the grading of the seven-mile stretch and construction of an overcrossing for the Green Springs Highway will run about $2 million,
Brown said.
    Work has not started yet on the Highway 66 overcrossing to be located just north of the former M. A. Ring property, the engineer reported. The structure was included in the grading contract awarded to the C. R. O'Neil Company, Creswell, Ore.
Completion Scheduled
    The Mistletoe railroad overcrossing south of Ashland is scheduled for completion by the middle of April, Brown said. This work involves relocation of the railroad track. Contractor is the R and M
Construction Company, Central Point.
    At the north Ashland interchange, the bridge to take Valley View traffic over the freeway is currently under construction by the Tom Lillebo Construction Company. Completion is expected in May.
    Valley View traffic probably will continue to use the detour for some time until approaches to the bridge are completed, he explained.
    Plans are being prepared for other freeway crossings between the Ashland interchanges.
Provisions for Crossings
    Provisions for these crossings are being made in grading at Butler Creek Rd. over the freeway; Oak St. under the freeway; Nevada St. over; East Main St., over; and Crowson Rd., under the freeway.
    Contracts are yet to be awarded for a bridge to take the freeway over Bear Creek just north of East Main St.
    "We are making excellent progress with no major difficulties encountered," Brown said.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 25, 1962, page D1




    A concrete highway without joints is being built for the first time in Oregon on a stretch of Interstate 5 freeway from Medford to Ashland.
    This type of construction, which is referred to as continuous strip concrete paving, is a departure from the state's practice of installing joints every 66 feet on concrete Interstate freeways. The 9.45-mile Medford-Ashland link will be the longest single stretch of continuous strip concrete in the country, according to Cement Industry of Oregon.
    Paving of the $2.5 million project is now underway by Fred H. Slate Company and E. C. Hall Company, Portland.
    Cross joints are eliminated by use of heavier reinforcing steel, which binds the concrete and causes tiny cracks at more frequent intervals. To the motorist. these cracks are unnoticeable and virtually invisible.
    Because the concrete is paved at a width of 24 feet, the joint between lanes will be sawed. The only other joints will be installed at the bridges.
    New methods of construction employed on other concrete sections of Oregon's interstate system have also resulted in a bumpless surface. The "bump-bump" which many motorists associate with concrete is a result of the slab-type of construction used for the older concrete highways, most of which were built prior to WWII.
    Another "first" distinguishes the Medford-Ashland project. A ready-mix type of operation is being utilized, rather than mixing the cement in batch machines at the paving site--a procedure followed in all previous concrete paving on Oregon's interstate highway.
    According to the contractor, this system is resulting in a faster paving operation due to elimination of mixing equipment from the train of concrete machinery. Seven ready-mix trucks work in a continuous cycle to maintain a steady flow of concrete on the highway.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 21, 1962, page B1


    The Interstate 5 freeway is helping rather than hurting business, say civic leaders in two Rogue Valley cities that are bypassed by the new road.
    Richard Abbott, president of the Gold Hill Chamber of Commerce, and Larry Sheehan, mayor of Rogue River, both report that the freeway has in fact helped business conditions boom in their communities.
    "Overall, from the time the highway first started to bypass us, we have shown an increase in retail sales of between 25 and 35 percent,"
Abbott said.
    His statement came in response to an article in last Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, which reported that Gold Hill's retail stales had fallen off by nearly 25 percent since the community was bypassed.
    "We're kind of up in arms around here about that article," the Gold Hill chamber president said. "Something like that can really hurt us."
    Mayor Larry Sheehan of Rogue River told the Mail Tribune last month that his city was "booming both in business and population."
    He said he thought the freeway was stimulating growth, making the city more of a "bedroom community" for persons employed in Medford and Grants Pass, because the faster highway made it possible for more people to live "out in the country."
    Sheehan pointed to the fact that there were no vacant commercial buildings in Rogue River and that several new businesses were in the process of moving in.