Oregon approved a plan Thursday to toll sections of Interstate 5 and 205 in the Portland area.

The move is the culmination of more than a year of study kickstarted by the 2017 statewide transportation bill signed by Gov. Kate Brown. Oregon’s application to federal officials proposes charging drivers on the increasingly congested interstates as a way to raise revenue for road projects and manage traffic.

Oregon’s Transportation Commission, the state’s top decision-making body, unanimously signed off on the proposal Thursday. The application now heads to the Federal Highway Administration for consideration. Oregon hopes to hear from highway officials early in 2019 and potentially hire a consultant in April to start working in more detail on the issue.

Oregon said it would use revenue to help pay for seismic improvements to the Abernethy Bridge and surrounding areas on I-205 between Oregon City and West Linn. On I-5, the tolls would apply to drivers broadly between the Alberta/Going and Multnomah Boulevard exits. The exit borders for tolls in both areas are not yet finalized.

Tammy Baney, chairwoman of the transportation commission, said many of the details will remain in flux for years. She said the state hears concerns from residents in North Portland about the potential for drivers to exit the freeway to avoid tolls. “It is not lip service that we have a lot of analysis that needs to continue,” she said. “We do not intend to answer those questions alone,” she added.

Chris Trejbal from North Portland’s Overlook Neighborhood Association said he was concerned the state was bowing to political pressure from Washington politicians and commuters who balk at the toll being placed at the border between the two states. He said other well-heeled interests in North Portland stand to benefit if the toll’s border doesn’t include areas between the the Swan Island exit and Washington state. “If you serve those political and business interests,” he said, “you will harm North Portland.”

Oregon Department of Transportation officials said the Overlook neighborhood’s concerns will be heard, and they said that level of detail will define the agency’s work over the next two years if the feds approve the plan.

“We know we have to act,” said Bob Van Brocklin, a Portland attorney and state transportation commissioner.

Van Brocklin said the Portland area is expected to add more than 500,000 new residents in the next 20 years, and tolling is just one thorny issue the state must confront as it tries to manage all that growth.

“If we rely on essentially what we have today, we will fall further behind,” he said. “This is a starting point in a long dialogue which will go well beyond tolling.”

By the end of January, the state vowed to return to the commission with a work plan for how it would go about studying tolls on other metro highways, like I-405, I-84 and U.S. 26.

If the federal government approves Oregon’s plans, tolls may be in effect sometime after 2024.

But the federal application isn’t happening in a vacuum.

A local group, led by outgoing Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn, is seeking a 2020 ballot measure that would give Oregon voters final say on any toll proposals.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen