What City Observatory Did This Week Repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. The I-5 Rose Quarter project is over budget at $2.1 billion, just lost more than $400 million in federal funding, and
The Week Observed, July 25, 2025 Read Post »
Testimony to the Oregon Transportation Commission July 24, 20225 Joe Cortright City Observatory Editor’s note:Â On July 24, 2025, the Oregon Transportation Commission voted to continue work on the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway project, even
Rewarding bad behavior, getting bad results Read Post »
The Oregon Department of Transportation finds itself in serious financial trouble, aggravated by an increasing dependence on borrowing. In the last two fiscal years, the agency has added about $700 million in new debt, chiefly
Deeply in debt: ODOT’s profligate borrowing helped lead to layoffs Read Post »
What City Observatory Did This Week Oregon’s transportation agency has driven itself into a fiscal brick wall of its own making. After the Legislature rejected a $14 billion transportation package, ODOT announced hundreds of layoffs
The Week Observed, July 11, 2025 Read Post »
ODOT is still failing to come to grips with the reality that it doesn’t have the funds to proceed with bloated megaprojects. ODOT’s financial problems stem largely from a handful of megaprojects that have exploded
The Oregon Department of Transportation crashes into a financial brick wall Read Post »
In the past week, decisions in Salem and Washington DC have driven a stake through the heart of the $2.1 billion plan to widen a mile-and-a-half stretch of I-5 near downtown Portland. The metaphor for
The Rose Quarter Freeway Widening is Dead Read Post »
