The Toutle Curves
By Curt Cunningham

The transformation of the Pacific Highway to US Highway 99 began in the late 1920's when the first 4-lane roadways were built. This transformation continued throughout the 1930's. The evolution from US Highway 99 to Interstate-5 would begin in the 1950's. The freeway would be built as a series of expressways. Over the course of 30 years the freeway would be completed. The first sections began as 2-lane cutoffs that later would become divided 4-lane expressways that bypassed a difficult part of the old highway or skirted around a large population center. 

In 1950 construction began on the Castle Rock expressway. This new 4-lane highway was one of the first sections of the future freeway. The expressway was built in 2 sections. The first section began on today's freeway at exit 46, Headquarters Road and Pleasant Hill Road, located at the south end of Castle Rock. Then north for 4.5 miles bypassing Castle Rock and connecting back to the Pacific Highway at the Toutle river. 

Before the freeway bridges were built over the Toutle river in 1969, the new expressway was diverted back onto the Pacific Highway for about a mile. This mile was widened to 4 lanes. This was a dangerous place on the road and was known as the "Toutle Curves." Cars going northbound would be barreling down the new highway while cars merging onto the new road from the old highway didn't have a good view of the traffic. The curves were once a part of the original 1871 right-of-way of the Northern Pacific.

After crossing the river on the old highway alignment, the second section begins at Exit 52, and continued north for 5.25 miles bypassing Tom Brown's hill and Gumbo Hill. The expressway merged back into the Pacific Highway  at exit 57. This is where Barnes Drive becomes the Jackson Highway at Gee Cee's truck stop. From the 1890's to about the 1920's the place was known as Neal's, named for Byron E. Neal an early homesteader.

The expressway was completed and opened for traffic in 1953.

It would take 16 years before the freeway would bridge the Toutle river. In 1969 the bridges over the river were completed and opened for traffic. This was about the same time Cowlitz county completed widening the freeway to 6-lanes. Now the Toutle Curves were no longer needed, which eliminated a dangerous place on the highway. The old Pacific Highway over the Toutle river was then shrunk back to a 2-lane road.