After winning a $450 million federal grant to build highway covers as part of its I-5 Rose Quarter project, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced more big news this morning: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has given the project a green light to move forward with an official “finding on no significant impact” (FONSI).
The FHWA decision puts the project back on track after they rescinded a FONSI in January 2022. These steps are related to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law all major projects must follow. ODOT conducted an Environmental Assessment as part of the NEPA process in 2019 and the FHWA supported it in 2020. But the project that decision was based on was politically infeasible. While ODOT’s internal modeling showed the expansion of I-5 between I-84 and the Fremont Bridge wouldn’t have negative impacts on climate change, air quality, or traffic operations, major project partners weren’t on board. A major sticking point (beyond expanding the freeway) was that ODOT didn’t want to build highway caps that would be robust enough to spur the type of development required to realize the plans of Albina Vision Trust, the nonprofit that wants to rebuild the neighborhood decimated by the freeway’s construction in the 1960s.
It took major intervention from former Oregon Governor Kate Brown in 2021 to broker a compromise and come up with a new design (“Hybrid 3”) with larger and stronger highway caps. That new design triggered the additional Environmental Assessment that the FHWA just decided on this week.
This green light from the FHWA also makes it less likely ODOT will heed calls from anti-freeway activists to conduct a more robust environmental analysis known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). A memo signed by FHWA Oregon Division Administrator Keith Lynch signed March 6th says, “The FHWA concludes Project impacts would not be severe or intense enough to cause significant environmental impacts that would warrant preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement.”
Notably, ODOT shared a statement of strong support this morning from Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Millicent Williams. “The I-5 Rose Quarter Project has come a long way,” Williams said. “Thanks to the deep involvement of local community stakeholders serving on the Historic Albina Advisory Board, the leadership of the Albina Vision Trust, and the work of PBOT staff, this project has gone from exacerbating past harms to an effort that can help repair and restore a community.”
It’s great news for ODOT that PBOT is now strongly in their corner. Four years ago, under former PBOT Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, PBOT walked away from the project completely. PBOT continued to keep the project at arm’s length under former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty; but by June 2022 ODOT has made enough changes that the ice began to thaw. But even as recently as February of last year, PBOT leadership expressed serious reservations about the project.
ODOT acknowledged this checkered past in their statement this morning. “It wasn’t long ago that some project partners and community members pulled back from the project because of disagreements with the design. We have worked hard to incorporate the perspective of our partners and community, and we believe we now have the right project for this region and this moment.”
This recent string of good news for ODOT marks a striking turnaround for the project. Just last summer, a high-profile ODOT staffer was overcome with emotion and had to leave a meeting of the project’s Historic Albina Advisory Board after sharing news that the project would be put on hold.
Ironically, for an agency whose past decisions are guilty of displacing hundreds of Black families from lower Albina, ODOT’s recent progress is entirely the result of centering Black voices and leaning into the work of Albina Vision Trust. (Note: The Historic Albina Advisory Board meets today from 4-7:00 pm.)
While expanded freeway lanes remain a part of the project, there is no money to fund them and it’s not clear if ODOT can convince politicians to support them. Nonprofit No More Freeways is seizing this moment to establish a new campaign to encourage ODOT to, “construct the caps and lose the lanes.”
Now that Governor Tina Kotek has told ODOT they must scrap the Regional Mobility Pricing Project, which was the most likely funding source for the expansion of I-5 through the Rose Quarter, that mantra carries more weight than ever.