State legislators helped advance Southeast Light Rail
The 2007 Oregon Legislature gave TriMet $245 million in lottery-backed bond money as the local match for a long-promised light-rail project — the connection between downtown Portland and the City of Milwaukie, earmarked for 2012 at the earliest, and still in the planning stage.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., already is working to secure around $500 million in federal transit funds for the project, which will include a bridge over the Willamette River that will carry the Southeast Light Rail trains, the Portland streetcar, bicycles and pedestrians. Metro Councilor Brian Newman, a strong advocate for the project, said the new line will not only carry passengers between downtown and Milwaukie but boost development at both ends of the bridge — the South Waterfront urban renewal area, and the east bank of the river near OMSI — the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
“Many people think of this as just a Milwaukie project, but it is a big deal for the entire region,” Newman said during a walking tour of the potential bridge alignment.
Anyone who recently has driven downtown or along I-205 knows that work is well under way on TriMet’s latest light-rail line — a connection that will carry passengers all the way from Clackamas Town Center through Union Station to Portland State University.
Signs of the massive construction project are everywhere, from new rail being laid on Fifth and Sixth avenues to the heavy equipment near the freeway interchanges at Southeast Stark and Washington streets.
Not nearly so visible is the fact that the start of the project has prompted TriMet to focus on the long-discussed, repeatedly-revived South Corridor route that will run from PSU to Milwaukie.
Key to the project is a new bridge over the Willamette River in the South Waterfront urban renewal area. Although TriMet and its partners in the project agreed to a bridge alignment in 2003, the discussion has reopened because so much in that area has changed since then.
The partners include the cities of Portland and Milwaukie and Metro, the regional government charged by voters with transportation planning. Four years ago, the governments agreed that the best route over the Willamette was the so-called Caruthers Crossing that ran from the RiverPlace development to OMSI. Area changes have called the wisdom of that alignment into question, however.
The South Waterfront urban renewal area runs from Southwest Montgomery Street on the north to Southwest Boundary Street on the south.
RiverPlace, where the alignment originally was sited, is at the north end of the area, just north of the west end of the Marquam Bridge. Over the past four years, however, most new development has occurred in the so-called Central District, located south of the Ross Island Bridge. The new development includes the Portland Aerial Tram, a new Oregon Health & Science University building, and 1,000 new housing units, with an additional 1,700 on the drawing boards.
Even more development is under consideration between the Marquam and Ross Island bridges. That is where the Schnitzer family has donated nearly 20 acres of land to OHSU for a satellite campus. Although OHSU has just begun planning for the campus, it already is talking about creating thousands of jobs and hundreds of housing units in the area.
Because of the changes, TriMet and its partners agreed several months ago to study whether a bridge alignment farther to the south made more sense. A Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project Refinement Study released in May found that two other alignments should be studied further. They would cross the river between the two bridges; one in the center of the potential new campus and another along its southern edge.
The study also concluded that moving the alignment even farther south was not feasible. Even though building the new bridge next to the Ross Island Bridge would be closer to the new and planned residential units, the additional costs would be prohibitive, the report said.
According to Newman, the partners were expecting to finalize the three potential alignments for in-depth study before the end of July. Issues include how to link the line with the existing Portland streetcar tracks, and whether the east end of the bridge should touch down north or south of the Portland Opera building, which was originally occupied by KPTV, and which is just south of OMSI.
According to Newman, a final decision needs to be made by spring 2008, so TriMet can request federal funding for the project next August.