Back in the late ‘90s, a short section of road near Rhododendron, Oregon was particularly prone to car crashes.
As the city of Portland had grown, Route US-26, the regional highway that connects the city to the ski and recreation areas on Mount Hood, had become increasingly congested.
Between the villages of Wildwood and Wemme in particular, these increases had created dangerous driving conditions; in a draft NEPA document exploring highway infrastructure upgrades in the region, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) noted that the accident rate on US-26 was twice as high as those in other primarily rural, non-freeway highways.
