The challenges keep piling up for the Interstate 5 improvement project at the Rose Quarter.

Under development for years, the estimated cost of adding a 1.7-mile long “auxiliary” lane in each direction has gone up as much as $295 million from the 2017 estimate of $500 million. Community members are criticizing the project both for enabling greater car use and for its anemic ideas on improving community and connectivity in the neighborhood, ­carved up decades ago by the highway’s construction. And key elected officials, including House Speaker Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, are now insisting that the state transportation department conduct a more detailed study of the project’s impact through an “environmental impact statement” – a move that could delay the planned 2023 start of construction by three years.

The political mess entangling the project has become as bad as the congestion it’s aiming to solve. Leadership, locally and on the state level, has been scarce. But with the temporary delay sought by Oregon Transportation Commission Chairman Bob Van Brocklin, local, regional and state leaders have the opportunity to fashion a solution that decisively moves this project forward ­– with the investments necessary to help transform Portland’s long-neglected Albina neighborhood. The need exists for both.

Oregon Department of Transportation officials have long made a compelling case for adding the 1.7-mile segment and a shoulder along I-5 in the Rose Quarter which serves as a major interchange for traffic moving between I-5, Interstate 84 and Interstate 405. With only two lanes in each direction, and motorists attempting to make their way from one highway ramp to another, the area is a crash-prone choke point that affects not just Portland but Oregon as a whole. Adding a lane that helps traffic more smoothly transfer with minimal merging will reduce the risk of collisions and keep traffic flowing as other auxiliary lane projects in Oregon have already shown. And it will help keep the transportation of goods from the rest of the state flowing to markets beyond – a key reason that legislators from outside Portland were willing to devote hundreds of millions of state money to this effort.

But as community leaders have made clear, this project must also do its part to address I-5’s legacy of destruction in the Albina district. The swath of North and Northeast Portland was once home to 80% of the city’s African-American population, according to a 1962 Portland Development Commission study. But the construction of I-5, which opened in 1964, led to the bulldozing of homes and businesses, forced displacement of African-American families and physically cut right through the Albina district.

Oregon transportation planners acknowledge the Rose Quarter project offers an opportunity to help reconnect the neighborhood. The highway improvements already require removing current roads and structures over I-5 near the Rose Quarter, so the plan calls for building new “covers” that physically connect the neighborhood and offer safer passageways for pedestrians and cyclists.

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The idea isn’t unique. Several cities across the country have adopted or planned such highway caps in recent years, creating both opportunities for development and restoring neighborhoods razed by highway construction. But ODOT’s plans to date reflect a vision of doing the bare minimum, with basic caps of open space ­– a far cry from the buildable plots that community leaders, such as Albina Vision Trust, are calling for to revitalize the neighborhood.

Even ODOT’s recent update for cost projections shows how little thought has gone into planning the caps, with officials offering a range of $200 million to $500 million for construction. That range is wide enough to be meaningless for discussion’s sake while extending high enough to potentially scare legislators from supporting anything beyond the basics.

Certainly, the state must be thoughtful about the budget, especially for portions that will primarily benefit Portland. But that’s a conversation it should be having with officials from Metro, Multnomah County, the city of Portland, Albina Vision and others who support using this project as a launching pad to transform Albina. Instead, the state transportation department, its commission and elected leaders have been locked in a months-long standoff that isn’t satisfying anyone’s objectives.

There is, however, a way forward. Gov. Kate Brown last month sent a letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission, which will decide whether the project can proceed or if it needs additional study, as Kotek, Wheeler, Metro Council President Lynn Peterson and others have requested. In her letter, Brown advised a limited delay to explore tolling to discourage car use and to hire a consultant to evaluate a range of highway cover proposals. While belated, her letter sends a welcome signal to those supporting Albina revitalization while still advancing the project.

On Friday, Commission chair Van Brocklin took the advice and formalized it in a proposal to his fellow members. He lists a number of ideas, including putting off a decision of whether to conduct a full environmental impact statement until March, hiring a consultant to explore caps, studying tolling and setting up advisory committees that include community members to help shape the project’s progress.

Those are solid proposals that the commission should approve. But commissioners and ODOT should also ensure the proposals aren’t just for show. Community members must be genuine partners in plotting the project’s direction or the state risks once again burning the trust of a community that has been betrayed time and again.

The project can’t address everyone’s objections, particularly those who contend the state should not add the lane at all, out of worries it will lead to more cars on the highway. Similarly, concerns raised by Portland Public Schools about potential impacts on students at Harriet Tubman Middle School are issues for the district itself to consider for all its schools in high-pollution or high-traffic areas.

While the state must address limiting emissions, this project must move forward. It makes no sense to leave in place an unsafe, inefficient and economically-destructive chokepoint in an area meant to accommodate traffic moving between three intersecting highways. Doing nothing is an option that only causes more harm.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board