Woelpern Horseshoe

July 11, 2020

Looking down from above on these two grades in 2014, I thought we were seeing a case where the CRH was following an old rail grade, as happened out west of The Dalles between Chenoweth Creek and Rowena, so I thought the grade curving around the drainage was the rail grade, and the embankment fill was the CRH.

Yes, and very much no. In 2020, with the size of the fill coupled with the width of the highway, Kirk felt it was clear that the main highway fragment through here was the improved US 30 road, not the original Route 2 alignment, and suddenly we became very suspicious that this was not an old rail grade we were seeing, but actually the original Route 2 grade.

Sure enough, there was still pavement on the west end of that sucker. This was a bit of a revelation for me, and I've been looking at a lot of the Upper Highway mysteries with a new eye since then!

Kirk J. Poole, July 13, 2020

Something I didn't notice when I was there: super-elevated curve starting into the turn above the '52 Road. Always nice to see sections with super-elevation.

Kirk J. Poole, July 14, 2020

Looks very wind-knurled to me (similar to the trees around Crown Point)

July 11, 2020

At this cut in the US 30 alignment, it is unclear where the original highway went. There is a grade above it that could be Route 2, but if there is pavement there, it is buried deep or gone. It could have been a smaller cut, or just traveled along where the cut was made, and the grade I followed in February might have been a shoo-fly...

Below, on the shoo-fly?

CLICK HERE to continue exploring the highway