Metro at odds with officials on highways

Regional transportation plan gets cold response from feds, state board

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Feb 13, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (30 Reader comments)

For months Metro leaders have said that the old way of solving transportation problems no longer works.

Led by Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder, officials at the regional planning agency repeatedly have said that building new highways is no longer the solution for the area’s growing congestion problems.

Instead, Burkholder and the others have said that the Regional Transportation Plan to be adopted next year will stress such land-use goals as encouraging people to live closer to where they work and shop, in part by encouraging more mass transit.

“We are redefining the RTP from projects to outcomes,” Burkholder said , explaining that federal transportation funding cutbacks are making it nearly impossible to pay for large road projects.

But now state and federal transportation officials are questioning whether the new direction will produce enough new highway capacity to keep traffic flowing, including the many large freight trucks that travel through the region each day.

“We appreciate the problems Metro is facing, and we understand that they are trying to be creative,” said Janice Wilson, a member of the Oregon Transportation Commission. “But the Portland area has to recognize the large role that it plays in the state economy — Portland is an international transportation hub that is connected to the entire state.”

The Federal Highway Administration also has questioned whether Metro is moving in the right direction. In January, the Oregon office of the Federal Highway Administration sent a list of comments about the draft of the first chapter of the transportation plan that Metro had prepared. Several of them took direct aim at the new direction of the chapter.

“The plan should allow for highway expansion as a viable alternative,” read one. “The transportation solution for a large and vibrant metropolitan region like Metro should include additional highway capacity options along with maximizing use of the existing system and land use choices.”

The comments were prepared by Oregon Division Administrator David Cox, who referred all questions about them to administration headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Contacted there, spokesman Doug Hecox said, “The concerns of Division Administrator David Cox reflect those of the Federal Highway Administration.”

Burkholder said the Regional Transportation Plan still is evolving. He and other Metro councilors already have appeared before the state transportation commission twice to discuss their thinking and will do so again before the plan is finalized.

Metro staffers are arranging a meeting with the Oregon Federal Highway Administration office to better understand their concerns, Burkholder said.

The disagreements may not be merely academic. Although neither Wilson nor Hecox would speculate about what might happen if the final transportation plan does not address their concerns, they must approve all major federally funded transportation projects in the Portland area.

Plan includes road system

Metro officials are not calling for a complete moratorium on road building in the current draft transportation plan. In fact, the draft includes a proposed template for an arterial street system that should be built throughout the region.

It envisions a grid system in every urban area that includes multilane streets and connectors. The larger streets — called throughways — could accommodate high-capacity transit or light-rail lines. Under the proposal, the regional arterials would be spaced every two miles in all urban areas.

Metro Transportation Planning Manager Tom Kloster argues that such a grid system would allow vehicles to move relatively well throughout the region without requiring the construction of additional highways.

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