State legislators helped advance Southeast Light Rail

By Jim Redden

The Bee, Aug 1, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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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.

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