SALEM -- A bill that would have paved the way for consideration of a Washington County bypass highway is dead.

House Bill 3231 would have allowed voters to approve special districts to design, build and finance limited-access highways. Rep. Caddy McKeown, D-Coos Bay, who is chairwoman of the House transportation committee, did not schedule the bill for a committee vote by Friday's deadline.

Bill sponsor Rep. Rich Vial, R-Scholls, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in March that it was his hope the bill would pass and Washington County voters would approve a special district to build a limited access highway.

Ducking the unpopular Westside Bypass moniker, Vial instead called the highway he envisioned the Northwest Passage. Vial imagined it would have snaked through Washington County west of Interstate 5 and up over the Columbia River via a new bridge. Tolls, bonds or local taxes would have financed its construction, Vial said, to avoid use of federal funds.

But it was not to be. At least, not yet.

Vial, a freshman lawmaker, announced in an April 12 email to constituents that his bill will not move forward this year. The idea for it came after Washington County constituents complained of traffic-clogged backroads, he said.

Although a new highway won't be popping up soon, Vial said he's turning his attention to aiding lawmakers working to develop a massive transportation spending package. In a telephone interview, Vial said he hopes that bill will include language to "break the deadlock" that has prevented major highway and bridge construction statewide.

Proposals to build a limited-access highway through Washington County have been proposed, killed and resurrected umpteen times in the last three decades.

Vial said he is undeterred, and sees a bypass highway as one way to reduce metro traffic and make it easier for trucks carrying valuable freight to export Oregon products.

"I'm not giving up," he said.

Vial said politics played a role in his bill getting the axe. He ran into "pretty vehement opposition" from advocates, he said, who were fearful that his bill would undercut efforts to improve public transportation and bike lanes in the metro region.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman