After Years of Delays, Rose Quarter Secures Big Federal Grant

Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it would award $450 million to the Rose Quarter Improvement Project as part of its Reconnecting Neighborhoods and Communities Grant. A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) from the Federal Highway Administration (FWHA) will allow the project to move forward with more detailed project design.

The Rose Quarter is the biggest bottleneck in the state of Oregon and has 12 hours of congestion each day. The rapid merging slows traffic and leads to 3.5 times more crashes than the average Oregon location.

In 2017, the Oregon Legislature approved House Bill 2017, a major transportation investment package that included funding to begin constructing a more modern corridor that would meet the needs of current traffic levels. Truckers were subject to a steep weight-mile tax increase to help pay for the project, an increase of nearly 60% between 2017 and 2024.

Yet, nearly seven years later, serious progress has yet to be made on the project. Costs have skyrocketed due to inflation, and the addition of the “caps,” further putting the project's future in doubt.

The $450 million grant from U.S.DOT will help pay for the construction of “caps,” or “highway cover,” that will essentially make a section of the interstate into a tunnel and the space on top into developable land. The cover will reconnect upper and lower Albina, a historically Black neighborhood that was separated by the building of Interstate 5 in the 1960s and '70s.

Representative Shelly Boshart Davis (R-Albany) released a statement shortly after the grant was announced:

“I’m grateful for the $450 million investment USDOT is making in the Rose Quarter project,” said Boshart Davis. “This critical funding will allow the project to finally start moving forward so we can improve congestion for passenger vehicles and freight that use this critical corridor to move goods between Oregon and Washington.”

“Increasing mobility through the Rose Quarter and I-5 corridor should be one of our top regional transportation priorities,” Boshart Davis continued. “Unfortunately, due to broken promises and a lack of willingness among stakeholders to agree on the project, it is significantly behind schedule, and costs have skyrocketed. My hope is that this federal investment will finally move this project forward and allow us to build out the infrastructure that the region was promised years ago.”