SALEM - When he first began promoting his idea of creating an expressway linking Coos Bay to Ontario on the Idaho border, John Shank says he got some strange looks.

"They all thought I was nuts," said Shank, a resident of Greenacres in Coos County and legislative director of the Oregon State Grange.

Since first proposing the idea in 1996, however, Shank says he has been finding support around the state for an expressway that would stretch east-to-west across Oregon.

Now, Shank and other members of the grassroots group are gathering petition signatures in hopes of placing their plan on Oregon's statewide ballot this November.

They say such an expressway would cut about four hours from the travel time between Coos Bay and Ontario and create new economic opportunities for rural communities along the way.

As it stands now, the sponsors said, there is no straight-shot route across Oregon from the south coast to the Idaho border.

That forces drivers to make their way across Oregon on winding, two-lane rural highways or head north to Portland to catch Interstate 84 eastward, they said.

Under the Grange plan, the new expressway would use existing highways plus two new 100-mile sections likely to be built as toll roads.

The proposed initiative doesn't specify how to pay for the $530 million project, but requires the state to explore means to "expedite funding."

Shank said other states have found toll roads to be a practical alternative. The state could issue bonds to build the new roads and pay them off with tolls, he said.

So far, the idea has been greeted with little enthusiasm from state and local officials.

Jared Castle, an Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman in southern Oregon, said building new expressway segments isn't realistic at a time when the Legislature has directed ODOT to concentrate its resources on fixing existing roads and bridges.

Plus, Castle said, securing the needed state and federal environmental permits to build an expressway across the state would be a "daunting task, to say the least."

"You would be crossing forests, streams, rivers, wetlands and mountains - every environment imaginable," Castle said. "It isn't as simple as drawing a straight line and building a road."

The Oregon Trucking Association, an organization that works to promote freight carriers, was an early supporter of the Grange initiative.

But the association has doubts about how many people would travel that route and pay the tolls. There's no guarantee that freight carriers would use the expressways, said association spokesman Bob Russell.

"We don't see the demand for that particular route where people would opt to pay tolls as opposed to using toll-free roads," Russell said.

Under the Grange's plan, one of the new sections of highway would connect Coos Bay and Oakridge, crossing I-5 south of Drain. The Grange leaves open the possibility of shortening the segment to the 55 miles between I-5 and Coos Bay.

The other new section would run from the junction of Highways 58 and 97 north of Chemult and connect to a point on Highway 20 east of Burns. Existing roads would make up the rest of the route: Highway 58 from Oakridge east to Highway 97, and Highway 20 from the end of the new road east of Burns to Ontario.

Shank said that aside from the benefits for rural Oregon, the expressway would also reduce traffic congestion by routing traffic around the Portland area.

The Grange official said he can understand why, at first blush, the idea seems far-fetched to some people.

"But I personally have sat in front of my post office collecting signatures for this, and I've gotten 500 so far," he said. "When people understand what we're proposing, the response is very favorable."

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On the Net:

Oregon State Grange road plan: http://www.roadpac.org