Hatfield West Trailhead to S-Curves

Richard N. Ross, "The Columbia River Highway" Columbia River Gorge: A Complete Guide (1992)

After 1.5 miles, the old highway is gated, but the road can be hiked or biked as far as the Mosier Twin Tunnels, which were abandoned and filled with rubble in the 1950s. The highway can also be followed from Mosier to the east end of the tunnels, but a portion of the roadway has fallen into private hands.

ODOT, Restoration of the Historic Columbia River Highway, Hood River to Mosier Segment: Expanded Construction Narrative (2000)

Historic Guardrail Installation

As part of the efforts to restore the Historic Highway to its original condition, Historic guardrail was installed. Research discovered where the original locations of guardrail were, and the Roads project installed new, historic style guardrail in those same locations.

Additionally, newer, more stringent design standards required installation of new guardrail where it Historically had not been. After the guardrail was installed in those locations, a special identification tag was attached to the backside of the railing to denote this difference. Columbia River Contractors installed this new guardrail.

The portion of the Roads project between the junction of Highway 35 and the West Trailhead currently carries local vehicle traffic. Several runs of guardrail were installed in this section. The historic version of the guardrail does not meet Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) safety guidelines and standards. Therefore, another version was designed to meet those standards while maintaining the general appearance of the historic version. The difference in the design is that the traffic-exposed guardrail has a steel plate backing on the rail members.

ODOT, Restoration of the Historic Columbia River Highway, Hood River to Mosier Segment: Expanded Construction Narrative (2000)

Additional Pavement Removal

Part of the Roads project was to remove the additional pavement width that had been added to the Historic Highway. Originally, the highway was 16 feet wide which was only wide enough to accommodate the smaller cars of the early 1900’s. But as traffic volumes increased and the route was used by trucks hauling cargo from The Dalles to Portland, the highway was widened. The width of surface removed ranged from 1’ to 6’. It appeared that most of the widening had occurred on the inside of each corner to also straighten the highway.

Great care was taken to remove only the actual extra pavement. In some areas the joint between the newer and original pavement was obvious, but in other areas, professional judgement was used to identify the location of the original highway. Crestline Construction of The Dalles performed all of the pavement width removal work.

ODOT, Historic Columbia River Highway Oral History: Final Report

William Donald Pattison, Chair of the Historic Columbia River Highway Committee

Bill Pattison is one of the historic highway’s biggest supporters. As a youth he spent countless hours on the “Highway” and today is chair of the Historic Columbia River Highway Advisory Committee. In this role, Bill works effortlessly to preserve the highway for future generations along with the other members of the Advisory Committee... Bill was interviewed on May 12, 2009 at his home in Hood River by Kristen Stallman and Sara Morrissey.

Bill’s most vivid memory of driving the old highway to Portland was that his sister always got carsick. He recalls how his dad was a really slow driver but his mother had a lead foot. For breaks, the family would stop at the drinking fountains located along the highway. Bill remembers that there were probably four or five fountains along the way.

...

Recently, while working with Sam Wilkins (ODOT District 9 Manager), the two men came across an old roadside fountain. The old fountain had been pushed over the edge, and its original location had been lost. Bill and Sam dragged the big fountain up to the HCRH State Trail between Hood River and Mosier. Where the fountain has been placed today there is no water source and therefore it is no longer functional.

ODOT, Restoration of the Historic Columbia River Highway, Hood River to Mosier Segment: Expanded Construction Narrative (2000)

Highway Regrading and Repaving

To finish the Roads contract, MOCON hired Munson Paving of The Dalles Oregon. First, Munson Paving had to level out many of the curves throughout the project. Originally, the curves were superelevated between four and ten percent. In order to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the superelevations had to be reduced to a maximum of five percent cross-slope.

Also, several sections of the roadway were so badly deteriorated that a simple overlay could not fix them. In those areas, Crestline Construction excavated out the asphalt and base rock and then replaced them with new geotextile, base rock and asphalt. At this time, all of the work, except the overlay and shoulder rock, was substantially complete.

A special Grand Opening Celebration and Dedication Ceremony was scheduled for Sunday, July 23, 2000 to coincide with an entire Gorge wide Historic Highway Event. However, the completion date for the Roads project was set for August 15. In order to complete the paving and shoulder rock portion of the Project prior to the Celebration, MOCON was paid an incentive of $15,000 to complete the work by July 21, the Friday before the ceremony.

MOCON was able to strike a deal with Wasco County to hire their crew to place the shoulder rock with a modified Flagherty machine. Without this machine, the shoulder rock would have been dumped on the new pavement and then bladed into place. Even with great care, the new pavement may have been damaged.

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