Just this:

http://www.swcommconnection.com/news/story.php?story_id=126630092329232700

http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION1/iowaviaduct/IowaTree_area.pdf

Ugly thoughtless devastation.

Jason -

Uninformed and stupid comment.

Did the trees get their rights and day in court as some public officials have said in the past they should receive?

Nonny Mouse -

Knee jerk reaction?

Well, they have to remove the trees for the temporary bypass, and remove additional trees for the access to roads allowing for the tree removal. I don't know how else it can be done. I don't think the actions are "thoughtless," and in fact, it's interesting to see the contour of the terrain for a while. So Nonny Mouse has a valid comment. Trees will be replanted, and probably with better species than the ones that are/were there now. It's not like they were indigenous, sacred trees.

PDXlifer:

They were mostly big leaf maples, which are natives trees (indigenous, as you call it).

I hope they replant more big leaf maples, and I am sure they will do a good job. The issue is getting trees established.

There might be some positives to the tree chopping in the name of ivy removal.

Not everything ODOT does is evil and duplicitous. Sure, the Hwy 26 / Sylvan project in the '90s revealed their "get your ass outta' the way of our asphalt ribbon" mindset.
But the next time you're headed into town at that spot notice the odd-colored spots on the roadway where they have been drilling and anchoring and trying their best to keep you from sliding down onto Macadam. This is needed for safety.

ws,

What I'm saying is that this was all Doug Fir before it was logged. Big leaf maples may be native, but they don't flourish in evergreen forests. The firs, and probably cedars too, had established themselves before they were logged. I'm simply saying the maples there are comparatively very recent growth.

I drove by there last week and noticed something that I had not seen before. It was the remnants of a retaining wall or maybe part of a long forgotten bridge or tunnel. It was dated 1913. Anyone know what this is/was?

From the linked article above, 1,000 trees will be removed for this project which is making the freeway safer - not "wider" safer, but "current 53-year old bridge not falling down the hill onto Barbur Blvd." safer. Then, per the article, they are going to plant 2,150 trees in the area once construction is complete.

In the end, it will be better for everybody (except the trees that get logged off and turned into phone books that no one uses).

I drove by there last week and noticed something that I had not seen before. It was the remnants of a retaining wall or maybe part of a long forgotten bridge or tunnel. It was dated 1913. Anyone know what this is/was?

Yup. Big, massive, retaining wall, just north of the T-curves? That was a retaining wall built by the Oregon Electric Railway, whose route out of downtown Portland was graded along what is now I-5 to Multnomah Boulevard, then west along Multnomah to Garden Home. (There is to this day a street named "Railroad Street, albeit only one block long, off of Multnomah Boulevard.) At Garden Home the OE split into two routes - one to Beaverton and Hillsboro (between the two cities is now MAX), following what is now the Oregon Electric Right-of-Way Trail; a second route continued SW to Tigard, and eventually onto Eugene following what is now WES and the Portland & Western Railroad all the way south.

For many years the wall was simply covered with ivy, but ODOT and volunteer crews removed the ivy exposing the wall for the first time in many years. It's the only structure, other than the Barbur Boulevard and Capitol Highway overpasses over Multnomah Boulevard, that hark back to the OE. (If you look at the plaque on the guardrail on the Barbur overpass it still refers to the Oregon Electric Railway overcrossing).