Interstate 84 (west)

Interstate 84 (abbreviated I-84) is an interstate highway that runs from an intersection with Interstate 5 at Portland, Oregon (Map) to an intersection with Interstate 80 (Map) at Echo, Utah—roughly the same route as the Oregon Trail.

Starting in Portland, where it is referred to as the "Banfield Freeway", the interstate runs through the Columbia River Gorge alongside the Columbia River Highway to The Dalles. It then continues along the Columbia River until it veers in a southeasterly direction at Boardman. It crosses the Blue Mountains, and continues toward Ontario at the Idaho border.

Crossing the "heel" of the Idaho "boot", I-84 passes through Boise, near Twin Falls and through Burley and Rupert. East of Rupert it veers to the southeast and crosses the Utah border. Within Utah I-84 passes through Tremonton, Brigham City and Ogden, terminating at I-80 in the mountains near Echo, Utah.

I-84 was known as I-80N until May 1, 1980 ^*. (The western I-76, branching off in Nebraska and going into Denver, was I-80S.) Federal law restricted the use of suffix letters on interstates, and these two were renumbered, as were some other highways that had E and W branches. The only remaining such split is I-35E and I-35W, which exists in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

Length


Miles	km	state
375	603	Oregon
276	444	Idaho
119	192	Utah

770	1239	Total

Major cities

Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.

Intersections with other interstates

Interstate 5 in Portland, Oregon
Interstate 82 in Hermiston, Oregon
Interstate 86 in Heyburn, Idaho
Interstate 15 in Tremonton, Utah. They stay joined until Ogden, Utah.
Interstate 80 in Echo, Utah

Spur routes

Boise, Idaho - I-184

Trivia

After renumbering, I-84 violated the Interstate Highway Numbering Convention by being south of I-82.
The Portland, Oregon segment of then-I-80N was proposed to run on the Mt. Hood Freeway. Plans for this were officially dropped in 1978 after a successful Freeway revolt.
In the Portland metro area, I-84 is usually referred to as the Banfield Freeway, though the official name is the Banfield Expressway. The freeway is named after Thomas H. Banfield, chairman of the Oregon Transportation Commission from 1943-1950

Reference

2005 Rand McNally "The Road Atlas 2005"

External links

Thomas Harry Banfield
Western Interstate 84 at Larry's Phat Page

Interstate Highway System | Interstate Highways in Idaho | Interstate Highways in Oregon | Interstate Highways in Utah

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