Highway 99W: The Two-Lane Road Through Wine Country
Near Dundee, Oregon
The road you are on, Highway Ninety-Nine West, is both the making and the headache of modern Dundee. This two-lane highway is the main route from Portland out to the Oregon coast, to Spirit Mountain Casino, and above all to the wineries of the Dundee Hills, and on a sunny weekend it can slow to a crawl. As wine tourism exploded, the traffic through this small town became legendary.
Trucks bound for the coast and cars full of tasting-room visitors funneled onto the same narrow street, and for years Dundee was one of the worst bottlenecks in the whole valley. The answer was the Newberg Dundee Bypass, a new expressway meant to lift the through traffic off Ninety-Nine West. The first phase opened in January of two thousand eighteen, and many drivers began choosing the bypass instead of the old road.
Later phases have been planned. The story of this highway mirrors the story of the town, a sleepy farming crossroads that became so popular for its wine that it had to build a whole new road just to breathe. When traffic frustrates you here, remember, this jam is the price of the Dundee Hills becoming world famous.
