PORTLAND — A construction project now underway in Portland figures to benefit thousands of Clark County commuters by the end of this year.
Crews are expanding the interchange that connects Northeast Airport Way with Interstate 205 in Northeast Portland. A series of improvements will add capacity for traffic entering northbound I-205 from either direction on Airport Way to help ease congestion as vehicles head across the Columbia River and into Vancouver.
“What we see here is a consistent backup that clogs up Airport Way,” said Don Hamilton, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
The interchange represents a key convergence in the region’s transportation system, connecting a major thoroughfare with an interstate freeway, right next to Portland International Airport. Congestion in the area often affects people going to and from the airport, Hamilton said.
But much of the traffic volume comes directly from Clark County and east Multnomah County as commuters head to work in the morning and head home in the evening, he said. The freeway carries 147,000 vehicles per day on average during the week at Airport Way, according to ODOT. During the evening rush hour, there is more northbound traffic getting on I-205 at Airport Way than at any other I-205 interchange in Oregon, according to the agency.
One of the main features of the $14.6 million project is a free-flowing right-turn ramp for westbound traffic on Airport Way turning onto I-205 northbound. That reconfiguration will also allow ODOT to give two turn lanes to vehicles turning left from eastbound Airport Way onto northbound I-205.
As it is now, commuters on Airport Way can experience delays of up to 45 minutes in both directions during peak travel times, according to ODOT. Chuck Gauna, a senior inspector on the project who lives in Clark County, can attest to that, particularly during the afternoon rush hour.
“It backs up at that time of day,” said Gauna, of engineering firm HDR, Inc. “That’s just the way it is.”
Traffic congestion isn’t the only problem the project aims to address. Other facets of the work will focus on stormwater drainage and stabilization, Gauna said.
On Tuesday, crews worked on the incomplete surface of the new ramp that will funnel westbound traffic onto the Glenn Jackson Bridge. Asphalt paving should begin in the next few weeks, with the final layer of concrete put down later this year, Gauna said.
The early stages of project development included multiple voices from Washington, Hamilton said. ODOT has continued to give the Washington State Department of Transportation regular updates on its progress, he said.
After years of planning, construction on the Airport Way interchange began in February 2013. The project is expected to be complete this fall, opening to what planners hope are shorter queues to get on the eastern crossing between Portland and Vancouver.
