Wheeler: Sellwood Bridge rebuilding project at “make-or-break” point

By David F. Ashton

The Bee, Nov 4, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

David F. Ashton / THE BEE

About 130 people came to the Oaks Park open house event to consider all aspects of the bridge rebuilding process, and to question county officials.

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Some 130 people came to check in on the progress of the Sellwood Bridge rebuilding project on September 30, at an open house held at the Oaks Park Dance Pavilion.

In an exclusive interview with THE BEE at the event, Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler told us, “We are at what I would describe indelicately as the ‘make-or-break stage’. We have preliminary design and engineering specification estimates about what we're going to build, and where we're going to build it. A pretty good ballpark figure for the cost of the bridge is, in 2014 dollars, about $330 million.”

Wheeler noted that the key question facing Multnomah County and its residents is funding. “Funding hinges on a couple of key sources, the most important of which is a County Vehicle Registration fee, to be levied in Multnomah County and in Clackamas County.”

Later, on October 22nd, Multnomah County spokesman Michael Pullen expanded on Wheeler’s statement, telling THE BEE that the “Jobs and Transportation Act” enacted by the Oregon Legislature and signed by Governor Kulongoski this year the permitted the county to levy a special, restricted, vehicle registration fee, and also allocated $30 million for the new interchange with Highway 43 at the west end of the bridge.

“Adoption of our county vehicle registration fee requires votes at two readings of the ordinance,” Pullen noted. “At the October 15 reading, it passed by a 5 - 0 vote, as it did at the second reading on October 22. Thus the fee was approved unanimously on the 22nd by the Board of Commissioners.”

Starting in 2010, Multnomah County residents will pay this surcharge on their vehicle registration to the state DMV when they pay their state registration fee.

Returning to our exclusive interview with Wheeler at the open house, “The City of Portland has indicated plans to fund $100 million of the project’s cost with new transportation funds resulting from the bill. We are in negotiations with Portland’s Mayor and City Council on an Inter-Governmental Agreement; we’re very close to that.

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