Doug Beghtel

BY ANDREW THEEN

A long and winding road to tolled highways in the Portland area inched forward Monday, not unlike your sorry soul doomed to be sitting in traffic later today.

The Legislature started the tolling discussion as part of the $5.3 billion statewide transportation plan approved in 2017.

Actual tolls are nearly a decade away from reality, and there’s no clear outline for how future revenue could be spent. Meanwhile, we’re in a bureaucratic traffic jam.

The committee tasked with offering advice this summer to the Oregon Transportation Commission held its penultimate meeting to debate the narrowing field of options. Final recommendations will come in late June at the group's last meeting.

Don't Edit

Transportation consultants offered a sneak peek at their recommendations for how and where to charge drivers in the future to navigate local freeways. It appears that tolls could come to Interstate 5 first with the option to later explore future congestion pricing on I-205 or elsewhere.

Transportation Commissioners Alando Simpson and Sean O'Hollaren cautioned that no pricing plan would be cheap or be a magic congestion pill.

Simpson said freeway capacity and the threat of drivers diverting to local roads to avoid paying the toll are not going away as the metro area grows. “I feel like these are going to be forever problems,” he said, likening the toll discussion to the “first mile to a marathon.”

O'Hollaren said the region’s growth rate, where it is expected to add nearly half a million people by 2035, is inescapable. “No matter what we do, we’re not going to have enough money or enough resources to pay our way out of congestion,” he said.

Here are the current recommendations in order:

Don't Edit

Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Toll all I-5 lanes between Multnomah Boulevard and Northeast Going Street

The consultants hired by Oregon Department of Transportation say tolling I-5 in both directions on this stretch offers the best potential to reduction congestion on the freeway with "minimal diversion to I-205."

Why do they think diversion is not as likely? Partly because of the area’s transit and multi-modal network. This option is contingent on the $450 million Rose Quarter freeway project, which will add caps to the freeway in some areas and add shoulders and auxiliary lanes to address merging issues with Interstates 84 and 405.

This plan could pull in $50 million in gross revenue annually.

This option projects travel time savings for Tigard, Tualatin, Lake Oswego, and central, North and Northeast Portland. The plan would be viewed as a “pilot project,” with an evaluation and plans to either phase-in more tolls elsewhere or stop.

Don't Edit

Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Consider tolling all lanes on I-205 at the Abernethy Bridge

Consultants also recommend slapping a toll on the Abernethy Bridge to help pay for a new travel lane in each direction on the suburban I-205 freeway bottleneck. This plan would roll out the new toll just as the I-5 project gets going.

This project would include a “high probability of diversion,” as people looked to avoid paying on this freeway.

Transit options are minimal or poor in this area, too, so transportation officials would need to provide new options to help people get around the toll.

The estimated gross annual revenue of this option is $66 million in 2027 dollars and would allow ODOT to pursue an immediate bond of $350 - $550 million. That bond would be paid back over 30 years. This plan allows for seismic improvements to be made to Abernethy Bridge."

Gerik Kransky, policy director for the nonprofit advocacy group, The Street Trust, said he couldn’t support this plan. “I really don’t want to see our region getting into the habit of applying a toll on a facility in order to make it wider or bigger,” he said.

Paul Savas, a Clackamas County commissioner, said he wanted to see a separate option remain on the table to just toll the additional lane on the Abernethy Bridge once it's constructed. "We are creating a problem that we don’t need to create," he said of tolling the entire bridge, which he said will encourage diversion.

Don't Edit

Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Toll all lanes of both I-205 and I-5

The plan that consultants say would have the largest overall congestion relief benefits to the region is not the first option they recommend at this time.

That’s because the proposal to toll all lanes of I-5 and I-205 would likely send drivers onto local streets in droves. “This could negatively impact safety for bicyclists and pedestrians,” the report said, “as well as drivers on these roads.”

This plan could bring in $300 million in gross revenue annually, enough to pay for operations and to “support capital investments” and solutions to make it easier for low-income users to navigate around tolls.

However, consultants say they could see studying this plan after it has more information about the success of tolling I-5 lanes.

Rian Windsheimer, ODOT’s regional director for the metro area, said he’d like to see the recommendations tweaked to include adding existing highways beyond I-205 in the future. That could include Oregon 217, U.S. 26 or Interstate 405.

Don't Edit