Today, the Metro Council voted 5-1-1 to give yet another greenlight to ODOT’s disastrous $1.9 billion proposal to expand the Rose Quarter freeway and double the width of I-5 through the Albina neighborhood. This vote is financially reckless – this proposed freeway expansion has suffered from gargantuan cost overruns at a time in which the Portland region and the State of Oregon are struggling to raise the significant revenue necessary just to maintain our existing roads, bridges and transit service.
We wish to thank Metro Councilors Mary Nolan and Duncan Hwang for their willingness to call attention that continued consideration of this proposed freeway expansion deeply jeopardizes our ability to find funding for every traffic safety, climate and public health related initiative in the state, and thank the two hundred people who contacted the Metro Council this month asking them to reject this amendment. “I cannot move forward with supporting a project that commits money that is not currently contractually obligated to the project or to the region, while at the same time scolding castigating other governments who we partner with, most notably in housing and supportive services,” said Councilor Nolan during this morning’s hearing. ‘I won’t join a chorus that lectures other governments about how to be fiscally responsible, how not to bust their budgets, and then turn around and do exactly the same thing with this project.” Councilor Hwang abstained, citing similar concerns.
If ODOT begins construction, the Portland region will be on the hook for the inevitable cost escalations – the Rose Quarter now costs more than 4 times what ODOT said it would cost in 2017; the I-205 Abernethy Bridge has more than tripled in that same period of time. ODOT will do anything, say anything, promise anything, to get the project started because they know we’ll have to pay whatever it takes to finish it. This is cynical and wrong.
ODOT has done nothing to try to “right-size” the project to be less expensive. The agency’s own consultants said the project could be 40 feet narrower, which would likely save hundreds of millions in construction costs–something ODOT opposes because it would prevent them from re-striping it as a ten-lane freeway once it was built.
At a moment in which New York City is showing congestion pricing works, Metro is turning its back on its commitment to require congestion pricing as part of this project. Congestion pricing is assumed in the Regional Transportation Plan Metro just adopted, both as a way of paying for roads, and a way to reduce congestion–and meet the region’s greenhouse gas goals. With this vote, Metro is throwing that all out the window.
We are heartened that although the new statutory language is insufficient to truly hold ODOT accountable, it represents an implicit acknowledgement that regional leaders are increasingly concerned with the numerous significant financial uncertainties of this proposed expansion.
No More Freeways and our partners will continue to insist local and state lawmakers consider the significant legal and funding challenges ODOT faces before significant construction of the freeway expansion is scheduled to begin in 2027; we remain committed to stopping this megaproject from bankrupting the state and clogging North Portland with more traffic and air pollution.