Month: July 2023
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The Week Observed, July 28, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Myth-busting: Idling and greenhouse gas emissions. Highway boosters are fond of claiming that they can help fight climate change by widening highways so that cars don’t have to spend so much time idling. It’s a comforting illusion to think that helping you drive faster is the solution to climate…
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Urban myth busting: Congestion, idling, and carbon emissions
Increasing road capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will backfire Widening roads to reduce idling simply induces more travel and more pollution Cities with faster travel have higher greenhouse gas emissions Time for another episode of City Observatory’s Urban Myth Busters, which itself is an homage to the venerable Discovery Channel series “Mythbusters” that featured co-hosts Adam Savage…
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The Week Observed, July 21, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Few highway construction dollars for Black-owned firms in Oregon. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises. One-tenth of one percent of construction contracts for the I-205 Abernethy Bridge, ODOT’s largest current project, went to Black construction firms. ODOT…
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ODOT’s I-205 Bridge: 1/10th of 1 Percent for Black Contractors
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises One-tenth of one percent of I-205 contracts went to Black construction firms ODOT professed a strong interest in helping Black contractors as a selling point for the I-5 Rose Quarter project, but instead advanced the I-205…
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The Week Observed, July 14, 2023
What City Observatory did this week We have an in-depth series of reports on the Oregon Department of Transportation’s imploding I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project. The cost of the I-5 Rose Quarter project has now quadrupled to $1.9 billion—it was a mere $450 million when it was sold to the Legislature in 2017. ODOT…
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Rose Quarter: So expensive because it’s too damn wide
The cost of the $1.9 billion Rose Quarter freeway is driven by its excessive width ODOT is proposing to more than double the width of the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway through the Albina neighborhood ODOT could easily stripe the roadway it is building for ten traffic lanes The high cost of building freeway covers stems…
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Who sold out the HAAB?
The members of ODOT’s “Historic Albina Advisory Board” (HAAB) are hopping mad. As related by Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland, they feel board betrayed by a decision to postpone construction of the $1.6 billion I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project. For years, the staff of the Oregon Department of Transportation have been promising the HAAB…
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Pens down!
The price of ODOT’s trouble plagued Rose Quarter project has quadrupled to $1.9 billion, and the agency has no way to pay for it, because it spent the money the Legislature provided in 2017 on another project. And agency staff is telling the state Transportation Commission there’s nothing that can be done to consider modifying…
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Extend and Pretend: ODOT’s Zombie Rose Quarter project
The Oregon Department of Transportation is playing “Extend and Pretend” with the $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project The cost of the 1.5 mile freeway widening has quadrupled from $450 million in 2017 to $1.9 billion today. Meanwhile, the agency has diverted money earmarked for the Rose Quarter to other projects, and now…
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The Week Observed, July 7, 2023
What City Observatory did this week Yet another exploding whale: One of the Internet’s most popular videos shows employees of the Oregon Department of Transportation blowing up a dead whale carcass stranded on an Ocean beach, with bystanders running in terror from a rain of blubber. ODOT’s latest fiasco is the exploding price tag of…
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Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost quadruples
It now looks like Oregon DOT’s I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.9 billion The project’s estimated cost has nearly quadrupled in just six years, and still has further cost overrun risk Even OTC commissioners question whether it’s worth more than a billion dollars to widen a 1.5 mile stretch…
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Testimony to the Oregon Transportation Commission
On June 28, 2023, City Observatory’s Joe Cortright testified to the Oregon Transportation Commission about the agency’s dire financial situation. Background: The Oregon Department of Transportation is pushing a multi-billion dollar freeway widening program in Portland, dubbed the “Urban Mobility Plan.” The agency has never fully identified how the plan would be paid for, and…