As Rose Quarter freeway project heads to key vote, Portland area politicians and opponents offer olive branch

aerial photography

Aerial photography taken Saturday, March 10, 2018, of the Oregon Convention Center and Moda Center. Mark Graves/Staff LC- Mark GravesLC- Mark Graves

Oregon’s top transportation decision-makers are expected to decide Thursday whether to move forward with the more than $715 million Rose Quarter freeway project or wait several years to conduct a more extensive environmental review.

But last week, a group of Portland-area politicians and civic leaders, including Mayor Ted Wheeler and Metro Council President Lynn Peterson, who’ve been vocal opponents of the Interstate 5 project appeared to give the state an offramp.

In a letter to Oregon Transportation Commission Chairman Bob Van Brocklin, the leaders called for the commission to embrace “restorative justice,” acknowledge the state transportation department’s role in ripping apart the historically African American lower Albina neighborhood and commit to helping Portland build a new community. They also called on the commission to include peak-hour tolling and ensure the project will reduces carbon emissions in North and Northeast Portland while reducing traffic congestion “for all modes.”

If the state can commit to an “alternative outcomes-based process,” it appears the Portland leaders are prepared to support the project and pull back on their persistent demands for the more extensive Environmental Impact Statement.

“This project provides an opportunity to tell stories from Albina’s rich history, create new transportation systems that help heal and connect us, and demonstrate responsibility for the past and commitment to a shared future,” wrote Wheeler, Peterson, City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson, Albina Vision Trust Chair Rukaiyah Adams and the Portland Public Schools board in the March 27 letter.

An ODOT spokeswoman said that the state agency would not issue a staff recommendation on what to do Thursday, but committed to “working with partners to further address their concerns.”

On the same day the political leaders sent their letter to the state commission, a coalition of a dozen environmental, transit and equity advocacy groups sent their own urging the state to pursue the more extensive environmental study. Many of those groups have vocally opposed to the project for years, and marshaled significant public outcry calling for delays at hearings and during the mandated public comment period in 2019.

“This project raised substantial questions about the potential negative environmental and public health impacts across the region, as it will increase vehicle miles traveled, which is associated with increased air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and toxic runoff into local waterways,” the group, which includes 1000 Friends of Oregon, Oregon Environmental Council, Sunrise PDX, Street Trust and others wrote. "The proposed project could also have a negative impact on the Willamette River’s shallow water salmon habitat and riparian areas. ​Local human communities would also be likely to experience increased air toxics and associated health impacts, increased noise pollution, and increased shading and noise on the Eastbank Esplanade.”

The freeway project, which has ballooned in cost from $500 million in 2017 to as much as $795 million today, has been in development for more than a decade.

As currently designed, the transportation department would add merging lanes between I-405 and I-84 interchanges on I-5, a roughly 1.8 mile stretch of urban freeway that is one of the more congested stretches in the state.

Plans also call for capping the freeway in two sections. Critics of the project have called for more robust freeway covers that would allow for taller buildings and more expansive community spaces. The state has said that adding those caps would put the project cost upwards of $1 billion.

In January, the state’s Rose Quarter project manager told The Oregonian/OregonLive the more extensive environmental review would add three years to the project timetable.

State lawmakers included the Rose Quarter project in its landmark 2017 transportation package, which totaled $5.3 billion and set Oregon on the way toward establishing congestion pricing to reduce traffic in the Portland area.

In the letter to Chair Van Brocklin, the Portland leaders said they also shared the state’s interest in “delivering the right project in a timely manner that maximizes limited transportation resources.”

“However,” they wrote, “It is critical to ensure alignment on project outcomes in order to support a successful path forward.” The group said that they have not yet seen that consensus from the transportation department.

The letter sent last week to Van Brocklin doesn’t include any specifics about what level of additional state funding is needed to make the project happen as envisioned, nor when those commitments would need to occur.

Under its existing timeframe, construction wouldn’t start until 2023 and wouldn’t finish until 2027.

The Oregon Transportation Commission meets virtually on Thursday, starting at 9:30 a.m.

-- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen

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