funding uncertainty.
(Photo: Aaron Tarfman)
Supporters of a project that would pave the Springwater Trail from SE Rugg Road to Dee Street in Boring are celebrating this morning after news that the Oregon Department of Transportation has put the project on its recommended funding list.
The $1.2 million Springwater Trail project — which was applied for by the Clackamas County Parks department and received an outpouring of community support — is one of 13 on the final recommended list (out of an initial 91). According to Clackamas County Parks planner Katie Dunham, the total project cost is $1.8 million and it won’t happen with the TE money.
“We don’t want to give final approval to projects until we have a better idea of how much money we can award.”
— ODOT’s Patricia Fisher
ODOT plans to award $13 million in TE funding this go-round (FYI: TE funding is set aside for projects that “strengthen the cultural, aesthetic, or environmental value of our transportation system”.)
This step in the process would typically lead to approval of the list by the Oregon Transportation Commission this month and then eventual funding. However, you might want to hold onto those champagne bottles.
ODOT’s TE Program Manager Patricia Fisher told BikePortland this morning that due to “this time of uncertainty about budgets and funding” the TE program is essentially on hold until as late June 2009.
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“All the projects will remain on the recommend list until next spring,” says Fisher, “when we have more information from state legislators and form the federal level about transportation funding and any economic stimulus.”
Fisher says they’re putting things on hold because if there’s less funding than normal, they “don’t want to get people’s hopes up.” “We don’t want to give final approval to projects until we have a better idea of how much money we can award.”
— More about TE Funding program at Oregon.gov. Read about the Springwater Project at BoringStation.com.