Is this the end? State transportation commission could defund I-5 Rose Quarter project – BikePortland

How bad have things gotten for the I-5 Rose Quarter project? So bad that the Oregon Department of Transportation has finally called the question: Is it time to mothball the project and transfer the funding to other priorities?

That’s one of three options on the table according to documents uploaded in advance of this Thursday’s meeting of the Oregon Transportation Commission — the five member body appointed by the governor to oversee ODOT. It’s also the latest in a string of very bad news for the beleaguered megaproject.

The project aims to widen about one mile of I-5 between I-84 and I-405. It would also add a lid for future development and make major investments in surface streets in the area of the Moda Center. I was originally estimated to cost $450 million, but that price has ballooned to over $2 billion with the start of construction nowhere in sight.

But it was a brutal summer for this project. The Trump Administration took back $382 million of a $450 million grant previously awarded to the project (when it axed the equity-related program that funded it) and the Oregon Legislature failed to pass dedicated funding for it in the heavily-compromised, anemic transportation package.

Eight years into planning the project and ODOT says it currently has just $487 million in the bank — about 25% of its total currently estimated price tag. And the cost of the project is likely to go way up, since it’s still only at the 30% design stage and isn’t slated to make it to 60% (a key milestone necessary for more precise budget estimates) until the second quarter of 2026.

One reason for the slow progress is pesky nonprofits who’ve joined forces to file multiple lawsuits against the project. Among their concerns are that the plans run afoul of already-adopted city and regional planning documents.

Amid all this bad news, key leaders of the project have recently resigned, including the former project director and leader of ODOT’s (now closed) Urban Mobility Office which included the I-5 Rose Quarter as its top regional priority.

For their part, the OTC has expressed grave concerns about the project. The last time ODOT came to the OTC asking for permission to move forward, commissioners reluctantly offered support for some preliminary work. “Everyone in this room needs to understand that beyond that, there is no money,” said OTC Chair Julie Brown at that meeting. “We are not saying that we are going to move forward with a complete Rose Quarter.”

And that was before the Oregon Legislature failed to put any money into the I-5 Rose Quarter piggy bank.

At this point, ODOT has already begun the dreaded work of cost cutting and value-engineering to try and create a more palatable project — an exercise that could further weaken the project’s political viability and curb appeal.

That’s the context of what is likely to be a very tense discussion at the OTC meeting on Thursday where ODOT staff plans to present three options for consideration: a full package that would begin construction without the funding to complete it; a partial package that would spend $167.5 million to build partial elements of a reduced scope project; and the “stop spending” option.

If the OTC chooses that third option, the $167.5 million could be reallocated to the I-205 Abernethy Project (another freeway widening south of Portland that has been beset by cost overruns), or it could be transferred to any other project in the state. If the OTC directed ODOT to “stop spending” they would use $67.5 million (the portion of the federal grant they had already obligated to the project before Trump rescinded it) to work on design and some preliminary construction projects.

Beyond that, project documents state: “Progress on the remainder of the Rose Quarter would await future funding opportunities, and the cost of the project would grow with each year.”

— View Thursday’s OTC meeting agenda and materials here.