Oregon Route 127

Oregon Route 127
Cornelius Pass Highway #127
Route Information
Maintained by Oregon Department of Transportation
Length	≈8 mi.
Existed	2020 to present
Junctions
North End	US-30 near Burlington
South End	US-26 in Hillsboro
Navigation
←  OR-126 OR-130  →

Oregon Route 127 is a future state route that will run between US-30 near Burlington and US-26 in Hillsboro. It will run along the northern portion of Cornelius Pass Road as the Cornelius Pass Highway #127 once jurisdiction is transferred from Multnomah and Washington Counties, scheduled for March 2021.

History

Prior to Jurisdictional Transfer

Cornelius Pass Road was built at some point in the 19th century by Thomas R. Cornelius, a prominent Oregon politician and soldier for whom the town of Cornelius is named. The Multnomah County side, a twisting road up the western bank of McCarthy Creek, was mostly widened, paved and straightened in the early 1930s, with the final half-mile paved in 1936. At the time, Cornelius Pass Road was described as a "well-surfaced oiled macadam ... road up an easy grade to the summit of the west hills" through "prosperous, well-kept farming country, a bit of woods, and views of the Coast Range."

The Washington County portion of Cornelius Pass Road was a part of Market Road #22, which ran from Hillsboro through Orenco and West Union to the Multnomah County Line near Rockton. The original alignment ran mostly down the western side of Rock Creek along what is now Old Cornelius Pass Road. A newer, gentler alignment to the east was built sometime in the 1940s, and a portion of Germantown Road near West Union was reconfigured as a southward extension.

Ever since the Sunset Highway #47 opened to traffic October 8, 1948, Cornelius Pass Road has traveled over it on a bridge. Aerial images from the early 1950s show the highway had a primitive "interchange" with Cornelius Pass Road. This was changed into a trumpet/parclo interchange, likely with the twinning of the Sunset Highway in the mid-1960s. The interchange was rebuilt around 1988-89, and two additional ramps in a half-diamond configuration were opened in 2005.

In the late 1980s, Cornelius Pass Road was suggested as a possible route for a "Westside Bypass" travelling from I-5 near the junction of I-205 in Tualatin through the Aloha area and the West Hills into Washington state, though numerous proposals have failed to gain steam due to opposition.

Prior to jurisdictional transfer, the Multnomah County portion of Cornelius Pass Road was Multnomah County Road #172.

Jurisdictional Transfer

This ODOT map from 2015 identifies Cornelius Pass Road as a possible jurisdictional transfer candidate.

In 2015, the Oregon State Legislature passed Senate Bill 117, which set up a task force to identify and recommend candidates for the jurisdictional transfer of highways and roads to and from the state of Oregon. While many roads were identified for possible transfer from the state to cities and counties, a few county roads were recommended for transfer to ODOT for maintenance. A March 16, 2015 letter from Paul Mather, ODOT Highway Administrator, to the Senate Committee on Business and Transportation included maps showing candidate transfers across the state; the map for the Portland area included Cornelius Pass Road as a possible transfer from county to state maintenance.

The jurisdictional transfer was included as part of House Bill 2017 called "Keep Oregon Moving" which was passed as part of the 2017 legislative session and signed by Gov. Kate Brown. As part of the agreement, Washington and Multnomah Counties needed to make safety improvements. Multnomah County realigned some curves (including a sharp S-curve near Skyline Blvd.), widened shoulders, and installed guardrails on their portion in the summers of 2019 and 2020 at a cost of $5.65 million. On the Washington County side, the intersection of Cornelius Pass Road, Old Cornelius Pass and Germantown Road was improved, including adding a traffic signal, between October 2019 and May 2020 at a cost of $1.1 million.

After the counties completed their construction projects, Washington County approved the transfer on October 12, 2020, with Multnomah County following suit on December 17, 2020. The Oregon Transportation Commission approved the transfers at their meeting on January 21, 2021. ODOT will officially take over jurisdiction of Cornelius Pass Road on March 1, 2021.