Don’t panic – we’ve been here before.
This week, the 2022 Supplemental Environmental Assessment for the proposed $2 billion Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion received a “Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI) declaration from the federal government. ODOT previously received a FONSI on the 2019 Environmental Assessment for the Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion, which No More Freeways, the Eliot Neighborhood Association and Neighbors for Clean Air challenged via a NEPA lawsuit in 2021. Our lawsuit raised numerous significant flaws with the proposal, including the demonstrably dubious traffic projections, the significant increase in air pollution, and the multiple additional lanes of freeway that ODOT proposed adding to the Albina neighborhood. After our complaint, the Federal Highway Administration in early 2022 withdrew their FONSI, forcing ODOT back to the drawing board. No More Freeways and our community partners submitted over 2000 comments and held an independent public hearing on the Supplemental Environmental Assessment at Harriet Tubman Middle School in January 2023, reiterating our opposition to the freeway expansion and demanding a full Environmental Impact Statement that explores alternatives to additional freeway lanes.
While ODOT has made numerous significant modifications to the proposed expansion since the 2019 FONSI, none of the design changes address any of the litany of concerns raised by our original complaint. The current design proposes adding even more lanes of freeway than the original 2019 proposal, and many features of the current proposal have been deliberately hidden from the public. Through public records requests, No More Freeways discovered numerous new significant design components added since the 2022 Supplemental Environmental Assessment, none of which have undergone the basic standard public environmental review process. They were reviewed in secret meetings in direct violation of public meeting laws. It is astounding that the federal government asserts that the Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion, the largest public works project in Oregon history, will have no significant environmental impact to the community despite adding multiple additional lanes of freeway and attendant air pollution, traffic and carbon emissions to the neighborhood and the planet. Both the 2019 EA and 2022 SEA received thousands of comments from the public with overwhelming opposition to freeway components of the project and overwhelming support for investment in the caps. Meanwhile, 40% of Oregon’s carbon emissions come from transportation, while the planet endures continued record temperatures and dangerously warming oceans. The proposed Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion is estimated to create an additional annual 21,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions through induced driving.
The Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion remains a deeply imperiled project. Even with the $450 million Reconnecting Communities grant announced last week, the Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion currently has a $1-1.25 billion budget shortfall, as ODOT presented to the Oregon Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation this past month,. Furthermore, Governor Tina Kotek’s announcement this week that ODOT will suspend their proposed tolling program significantly undercuts the funding mechanism ODOT intended to use to close this substantial gap. The original funding allocated in HB 2017 for the Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion has since been diverted to the Abernethy Bridge Expansion project, which has also undergone significant cost overruns. That bridge expansion, which is underway, has been funded by $385 million in short term borrowing to be repaid by tolls which have now evaporated.This is at the same moment that the state legislature ponders other large budget shortfalls in our transportation system, with over $3 billion of unmet maintenance, seismic and safety needs across Oregon, while revenue from the statewide gas tax, which is not indexed to inflation, continues to dwindle in purchasing power.
As stated on Monday, No More Freeways remains a vocal champion of remediating the Albina neighborhood with an investment in freeway caps. The opportunity to heal the injustice inflicted into this neighborhood must not be paired with ODOT’s attempt to further harm this community with greater air pollution, freeway traffic and carbon emissions. We continue to demand that ODOT conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement that considers alternatives to build these caps and remediate the neighborhood without the additional freeway lanes and attendant negative consequences.
No More Freeways is actively considering our options to fully respond to this development, as well as the impact that the death of a regional tolling program and the recently awarded Reconnecting Communities funding has to our efforts to kill this freeway expansion. It’s certainly been a busy week! Please stay tuned – in the meantime, you can support our efforts by joining the hundreds of Oregonians who have made a donation to our legal fund. Over the last seven years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has spent at least $110 million planning and greenwashing this freeway expansion. No More Freeways has spent approximately $110,000 over the same period. Whether you have $15,000, $1500, $150, $50 or $15 to give, every dollar makes a significant difference as we fundraise to challenge this disastrous piece of toxic, polluting fossil fuel infrastructure being thrust into our community.
Fighting freeways is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re so grateful for all the help we’ve had along the way. Thank you for your continued support.