Woelpern Cliff Ledges

July 11, 2020

In these maps, the blue lines are improved US 30, the yellow lines are the original, Route 2 Columbia River Highway, and the orange lines indicate unconfirmed grades that may or may not be a part of the highway.

In the map above, I am going to go ahead and call the eastern cliff fragment confirmed, but I am holding off on confirming the western fragment for now. Partially, this is because I am not sure if it is Route 2, US 30, or both, or even just a rock fall protection measure for the tracks, with the old highway dropping all the way down to the grade bearing the tracks today.

I am pretty sure it is CRH, though.

Steve Hart, July 13, 2020

OK, the next series of pictures is to talk about the big cuts west of the Woelpern Road Segments. Were they part of the highway or not?

My opinion is basically no. I feel that these cuts are created during the Lake Umatilla reconstruction for the Union Pacific. More info with the photos.

At places like the old Mitchell Point Tunnel, there is so much rockfall that it is very difficult to tell that the ledge was once a highway, all the old pavement is mostly buried. Here, though, it is clear that there is not any pavement over the bedrock of the ledge. For me, personally, this does not completely rule out this ledge, but it is pretty compelling evidence against, especially when considering the overhead aerials we'll cover in a minute.

Still, the line on the maps, how this lines up with confirmed fragments, I think there is a compelling case to be made in either direction.

Finally, this would have been one spectacular stretch of the Columbia River Highway / Old Oregon Trail Highway... If this was highway, I'd really expect more photos from here! Someone needs to check out the local museums!

July 14, 2020

One possibility that is coming to mind is that the western shelf was just created as rockfall prevention for the UP tracks, but the eastern fragments, descending from the known US 30 pavement, might be old highway grade that was blasted away to make room for the relocated railroad. It does seem a viaduct would have been necessary to cross the big gap on the east, there, and that should just require a little digging to confirm or deny.

If there was one for Route 2, then it will be in the OHC reports. For the later US 30 improvements, I am not as sure where to look, but we've got a lot of eyes and minds working on the highway right now, go for it!

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