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ORoads: The Roads of Oregon

ORoads: Oregon Route 8

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Oregon Route 8
OR-8 Navigation:
Info/Map | Definition | History | Route Log | Pictures (coming soon)
Oregon Route 8 Info and Map
OR-8's Routing from Gales Creek to Sylvan
Lengths: 29.52 miles (1957 current alignment)
19.24 miles (1936 alignment)
Type: Undivided Highway
Lifespan: 1936-1939, 1957-present
Western Terminus: OR-6 at Gales Creek
Eastern Terminus: US-26 at Sylvan
Cities Served: Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Beaverton
Intersects: OR-47, OR-219, OR-217
Multiplexes: none
Oregon Highway Name/Numbers: Tualatin Valley Highway #29
(Tualatin Valley Highway #29 [Forest Grove Spur])
Nehalem Highway #102
Oregon Route 8 Route Definition

"Over the Gales Creek County Road from its junction with the Wilson River Highway, OR6, near Gales Creek, southeasterly to its junction with the Nehalem Highway, OR47, in Forest Grove; thence easterly over the Nehalem Highway (common with OR47) to its junction with the Tualatin Valley Highway Spur at College Way in Forest Grove; thence easterly over the Tualatin Valley Highway Spur to its junction with the Tualatin Valley Highway; thence easterly over the Tualatin Valley Highway via Cornelius, Hillsboro, and Beaverton to its junction with the Sunset Highway, US26, near the Washington-Multnomah County Line."

~ ODOT, Descriptions of US and Oregon Routes, March 2007

Oregon Route 8 History

OR-8 didn't exist at the inception of the Oregon state route numbering system in 1932; the entire Tualatin Valley Highway, from Portland to Forest Grove to McMinnville was numbered OR-47. However, because of the inclusion of secondary state highways into Oregon's highway system, OR-47 is rerouted to a more north-south route (the Nehalem and Mist-Clatskanie Highways, #102 and #110 respectively), and OR-8 is created between Forest Grove and Portland. However, this designation wouldn't last long, because in 1939, with the construction of the nearby Wolf Creek Highway #47, the OR-8 designation was supplanted by a temporary routing of OR-2 until the highway was complete. Additionally, OR-6 was temporarily added to the OR-2 moniker in 1942 because its future routing was under construction. Essentially, adding routes OR-2 and OR-6 together equals OR-8, right? No? Okay, I tried. (That's what happens when I write these pages late at night.)

In 1949, with the completion of the Wolf Creek Highway (now the Sunset Highway), OR-2 is shifted there, leaving OR-6. When OR-6's highway, the Wilson River Highway, is completed 8 years later, OR-6 is removed from the Tualatin Valley Highway, and ODOT not only reinstates the OR-8 designation, but extends it along Gales Creek Rd. from Forest Grove to Gales Creek to meet up with OR-6. This new portion, however, is maintained by Washington County and not an ODOT highway. Oh well, can't win 'em all. The extension included a 0.23-mile co-designation with OR-47 in the heart of Forest Grove.

OR-8's current alignment from Forest Grove to Portland is basically the same as it was when it was first created in 1936. However, only the portion between US-26 in Sylvan and OR-47 outside Forest Grove is currently under state maintenance. A 1.35-mile portion of OR-8 that runs from OR-47 to the center of Forest Grove (called the Tualatin Valley Highway #29 Forest Grove Spur) was under state maintenance as of 2002, but was relinquished to Forest Grove maintenance around the same time the Nehalem Highway #102 (OR-47) was rerouted around Forest Grove (and thus eliminating the route duplex).