Rose Quarter’s Deadly Off Ramps

The proposed design of the $2.1 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Project includes two deadly hairpin freeway off-ramps.

Everyone focuses on the part of the Rose Quarter than involves covering over part of the I-5 freeway.  No one ever talks about the two deadly off-ramps ODOT will build as part of this project.

Traffic exiting I-5 South at the Rose Quarter will go through a high speed tunnel and then choose between two hairpin turns on to local streets.  

Similar ramps in Portland and Seattle are the source of frequent crashes and fatalities.

The plan to widen I-5 through the Rose Quarter, at the staggering cost of $2.1 billion, has a new added safety problem, a complicated new freeway offramp, of the kind that often leads to serious or fatal crashes.

New Southbound Exit:  Tunnel, then choice of hairpin turns

A key part of the re-design of I-5 is shifting the southbound off-ramp about a quarter of a mile south to the current location of the southbound on-ramp, just outside the Moda Center.  Because the freeway will be mostly covered between Flint and Weidler, you’ll actually be in a tunnel for about 1,400 feet—about a quarter mile—before exiting.

As you exit I-5 southbound at the Rose Quarter, you’ll emerge from this tunnel under the freeway cap and then suddenly have to choose one of two hairpin off-ramps that force you to go in the opposite direction.  The left-hand hairpin loops up over the freeway and does a 180-degree turn to merge with traffic exiting the freeway from Northbound I-5 on the east side of the freeway; the right-hand hairpin does a loop onto northbound Wheeler or Ramsay (still undecided).  Even ODOT’s own safety analysis noted the this off-ramp would cause big trucks to veer across marked traffic lanes, and would increase the number of crashes.

ODOT’s initial description called this the “anchor” design, because the freeway off-ramp splits in two, with hairpin turns to both the left and right.  Here is an illustration of ODOT’s proposed “Anchor+Wheeler” Design.  The two hairpin off-ramps are shown in red.  One hairpin off-ramp turns right, and pours traffic exiting the Freeway onto N. Wheeler Avenue.  The second hairpin off-ramp turns left, vaults up and over the I-5 freeway mainline, and then circles back North to merge with the existing I-5 northbound off-ramp as it meets N. E. Weidler Street.  (The circular inset picture with the anchor logo shows the exit ramps emerging from under ODOT’s freeway overpass/cover).

There are big risks of forcing freeway traffic to make a 180-degree (or greater turn) as they exit from a highway (with a design speed of 70 miles per hour) on to local streets with high levels of bicycle and pedestrian users.

High curvature ramps are a source of crashes

In Seattle and Portland, freeway and bridge ramps with high curvature are often the site of crashes and fatalities.  A similar low speed, hairpin exit ramp–adjacent to that city’s freeway park cover–from the I-5 freeway in downtown Seattle has been the scene of a series of repeated and spectacular crashes, as documented on Youtube.

Similarly, in Portland the combination sharply curving freeway on- and off-ramps feeding into busy arterial streets are deadly to vulnerable road users.  For example, Brandon Coleman was killed in a hit-and-run crash where the Morrison Bridge ramps intersect with S.W. Morrison Street and Naito Parkway.  Here’s the police report:

A pedestrian has died in a Downtown Portland hit and run crash.

On Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 4:30a.m., Central Precinct officers responded to a crash at Southwest Naito Parkway and Southwest Morrison Street. When officers and EMS arrived, they found a person, believed to be an adult male, laying on Southwest Naito Parkway at the ramp connected to the Morrison Bridge. He was confirmed deceased at the scene. The involved driver left the scene of the crash and was not immediately located.

Just like the proposed Rose Quarter configuration, this intersection combines a curling, high speed and low visibility ramp with local arterial streets and a dangerous pedestrian crossing.  Traffic turning left or right from Naito Parkway does a tight 180-degree turn on to the Morrison Bridge.

As we’ve pointed out, ODOT has cynically and falsely portrayed the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening as a “safety” project, claiming (again falsely) that its the “#1 crash location in Oregon.  It’s latest proposed re-designs actually make the area much more dangerous, both for those traveling in vehicles, and especially people traveling on foot and by bike.  The pair of 180-degree hairpin off-ramps proposed for I-5 southbound funnel high speed traffic exiting the freeway right into arterial streets that carry high volumes of people walking and cycling.