These highways are built to Interstate Highway standards,[3] meaning they are all freeways with minimum requirements for full control of access, design speeds of 50 to 70 miles per hour (80 to 115 km/h) depending on type of terrain, a minimum of two travel lanes in each direction, and specific widths of lanes or shoulders;[4] exceptions from these standards have to be approved by the FHWA.[5] The numbering scheme used to designate the Interstates was developed by AASHTO, an organization composed of the various state departments of transportation in the United States.[6]
The Oregon state government initially proposed numbering the auxiliary Interstates using lettered suffixes, but were denied in 1958 by the American Association of State Highway Officials (forerunner to the AASHTO).[7] The last section of the Interstate Highway system to be built in Oregon, on I-82 near Hermiston, opened on September 20, 1988.[8]
^Swift, Earl (2011). The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways. Boston: Mariner. p. 5. ISBN978-0-547-90724-6.