Critics are skeptical the transportation agency will fulfill its promise to reconnect the Albina neighborhood with caps over I-5.  by Taylor Griggs After nearly a decade of planning and frequent political and financial obstacles, t he Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is closer than ever to breaking ground on its I-5 Rose Quarter project—at least, part of it.  ODOT’s full plans for I-5 through Portland’s Rose Quarter include widening the freeway in both directions and covering it with caps, which will reconnect the historically Black neighborhood that was bisected by I-5 construction in the 1960s. However, the agency’s current financial outlook doesn’t allow for immediate construction of the full project, estimated to cost between $1.5 and $1.9 billion, so the majority of the capping plan is on hold.  Instead, the department plans to begin work on an $873 million portion of the Rose Quarter plan, using a combination of a large federal grant awarded by President Biden’s Department of Transportation, and funding allocated by the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC). The partial work includes stormwater facility construction, seismic retrofits, and widening the freeway throughout a chunk of the project area. ODOT wants to begin initial construction as soon as this summer, with more extensive work starting in 2027.  Significantly, ODOT’s initial construction plans only include a small piece of the freeway caps. The agency has pledged its commitment to finishing the project, but some critics are doubtful, and want local policymakers to hold the department accountable for its spending and environmental impact.  And, while ODOT says it is confident the promised federal funds will be delivered, the new Trump administration’s hostility to Biden-era transportation grants is another source of precarity.  The conflict surrounding the project was on display during the March 27 Metro Council meeting. At the meeting, ODOT leaders asked Metro to support their funding plan for the first phases of the Rose Quarter project, which includes $250 million in funds allocated by the OTC last December. In order for ODOT to break ground on the project, it needs Metro to amend the  Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP) to include the additional funding. The MTIP, a federally required document, is Metro’s four-year record of how federal transportation money is spent in the Portland region.  For most projects, the request for a Metro rubber stamp would be relatively mundane. When it comes to the I-5 Rose Quarter expansion, the state of affairs is more fraught. The project has received substantial pushback from people who oppose its climate and financial impacts. Others, notably those who believe the project will help restore the historically Black Albina neighborhood, have a different perspective. ODOT’s plans  Megan Channell, ODOT’s Rose Quarter project director, was joined at the Metro meeting by two crucial agency partners: Albina Vision Trust Executive Director Winta Yohannes and Jeff Moreland, president of Raimore Construction. Yohannes and Moreland made the case for the project as a way to empower Portland’s Black community through neighborhood redevelopment and economic investment.  “For me, this project has always been about meaningful opportunities in construction, for meaningful pay, that can help reestablish and build communities that have been marginalized and locked out,” Moreland said. “We see this as a golden opportunity to build a legacy for our community.”  ODOT has pledged the I-5 Rose Quarter project will be an opportunity to expand economic opportunities for minority communities, and has partnered with Raimore Construction, a Portland-based, Black-owned and operated company, as a prime contractor.  Yohannes said finding consensus with ODOT and other partners on the design of the project was “nothing short of capturing lightning in a bottle,” and praised the agency for its meaningful engagement with Portland’s Black community.  Albina Vision Trust, a group dedicated to rebuilding the historic Albina neighborhood in inner North and Northeast Portland, has been a key ODOT partner on the Rose Quarter project since early in the planning process. With the organization’s blessing, the project received endorsements from the city of Portland, the Portland Trailblazers, and more critical partners.  Most importantly, with Albina Vision Trust on board, ODOT applied for—and won—a $450 million federal Reconnecting Communities grant, without which the agency would have few financial pathways to move forward.  That’s why it’s concerning to project critics that ODOT plans to use the federal money largely for other components of the plan—not the freeway caps. The transportation department says the $873 million it currently has will fund two phases of the project, which the agency has dubbed “Phase 1A” and “Phase 1.” If all goes according to ODOT’s plans, work will begin on these phases this year and in 2027, respectively.  Phase 1A, which ODOT says will cost $65 million, includes stormwater facility construction at the east end of the Fremont Bridge and seismic retrofits to two I-5 bridge structures.  In Phase 1, budgeted at a little more than $800 million, ODOT plans to complete the freeway widening on the southbound section of I-5, adding an auxiliary lane and shoulders between I-405 and the Morrison Bridge exit. Phase 1 also includes partial construction of the northbound auxiliary lane and shoulders, and initial work on the freeway cover between NE Weidler and NE Broadway. ODOT’s plans are concerning to project critics, like No More Freeways co-founder Chris Smith. No More Freeways, along with other climate and transportation groups, have filed lawsuits against ODOT and Metro over the I-5 Rose Quarter plan, citing its negative environmental and financial ramifications. Smith supports the plan to reconnect the Albina neighborhood using freeway caps, but opposes the I-5 expansion.  At the Metro meeting, Smith said that he and other members of the No More Freeways campaign have “deep respect for the goal of [reconnecting the Albina community],” but “believe doing so on the foundation of freeway expansion is a fatal mistake.”  “I would like to talk about promises made and promises deferred,” Smith said. “We had an extensive cover design process… what we have in Phase 1 is a freeway project and a token amount of covers, with all other promises deferred. That is inappropriate.”  Funding concerns  To Smith and other skeptics, ODOT’s promises to finish constructing the freeway caps in full are just words. The Rose Quarter plan was initially conceived with the notion that ODOT would use tolling or congestion pricing to pay for it, but the agency is currently barred from implementing such plans, per a mandate by Governor Tina Kotek. The project is now estimated to cost up to four times as much as originally planned, with few funding mechanisms available to pay for it.  There’s also the question of federal funding. The Trump administration has been hostile to many grant programs established under President Biden’s administration, especially those meant to address climate change or environmental injustice. The $450 million award promised to ODOT for the Rose Quarter project is the single largest grant allocated through the Reconnecting Communities program.  ODOT leaders are hopeful. They recently learned that despite ongoing federal review of the Reconnecting Communities program, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has begun processing obligated funds to projects with signed grant agreements. ODOT signed and finalized its grant agreement last year, and says it’s working with the federal agency to get the money out the door.  At the Metro meeting, ODOT’s Channell appeared cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the federal grant, while recognizing the agency still doesn’t have the money in hand.  “I’d say there's substantially less uncertainty, but there still remains some risk,” she said. ODOT has already made an obligation request for the funds, which will be processed by the FHWA’s Oregon Division.  Still, the agency aims to secure the funding to construct the full freeway caps partially by leveraging federal resources, which may or may not be available in the years ahead.  Channell emphasized the importance of breaking ground on the project as soon as possible to “help build capacity, not only for future phases of the Rose Quarter, but for future work in our region.”  The agency also wants to fulfill its promises to contractors who have been impacted by previous delays in the project. Moreland said his company took a hit when the Rose Quarter project was delayed in 2023, after ODOT’s financial outlook changed due to a moratorium on tolling imposed by the governor.  “My company has been at more risk because of the delays, and I’m one of the larger diverse contractors, so you can only imagine what that delay has done to the smaller subcontractors,” Moreland said at the March 27 meeting. “That strain has been severe, and we need to move forward. The cost of not moving forward outweighs anything else.” Yohannes, the Albina Vision Trust director, appeared confident that ODOT would follow through on its plans to build the full freeway caps. But she said if the agency did not, it would have a major impact on the future of the Albina restoration project, which depends on the covers providing additional land to build on and creating a street grid unbroken by the freeway.  Yohannes said construction on Albina One, the affordable housing complex intended to prioritize families previously displaced from the neighborhood, will be complete soon, welcoming its first residents. The building is located adjacent to I-5 on North Flint Street and Broadway.  The Albina One building under construction in late 2024. taylor griggs “There’s a beautiful courtyard that will look out to either a highway cover that will functionally tunnel the freeway, or not. The cost to us really is going to be measured in terms of quality of life for residents,” Yohannes said, mentioning the thousands of units of housing Albina Vision Trust plans to build on the nearby Portland Public Schools site and other parts of the neighborhood.  “It’s a cost to future generations. And it’s about district momentum as well,” Yohannes continued. “The existence of the freeway has been the key development challenge for a long time. Being able to provide evidence that the project with the caps is moving forward attracts the kinds of partnerships that are necessary for the vision to move forward.”  Metro Council will vote on the MTIP amendment on April 1. Their resolution includes a requirement that “if the Reconnecting Communities funding is not made available, or if a major change in scope for Phase 1 becomes necessary,” ODOT will return to Metro for further action.  ...read more read less