Portland’s Freeway Names, Banfield Freeway

Portland’s Freeway Names, Banfield Freeway

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Banfield Freeway (I-84 between I-5 and I-205):

Finished in 1957, the Banfield Freeway was the first to be built with the new grade-separated and controlled-access design proposed by the OSHD. It was built to replace Sandy Boulevard, which had become one of the busiest roads in all of Oregon, serving traffic between Portland and East Portland. An expressway had been planned for Sullivan’s Gulch as early at 1926, but no action was ever taken. The Lloyd Corporation ended up developing a golf course in the Gulch, and a shanty town popped up around a formerly popular picnic spot named “Sullivan’s Spring” (located at about 19th street.) A fire hit the shantytown in 1941, and the last shack was pulled down to make way for the freeway.

After much controversy, the new Freeway was named after retired Oregon State Highway Commission Chairman, Thomas H. Banfield, over Timothy Sullivan who had the original land claim that contained Sullivan’s Gulch.

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