State agency designing Rose Quarter project pledges to ‘keep our promises’ to right historic wrongs to Black Portland

Top officials overseeing a $715 million-plus project on Interstate 5 though the Rose Quarter said Wednesday the state remains committed to addressing historic injustices against Black people caused by the freeway construction despite several key partners declaring last month they will no longer participate.

Brendan Finn, director of the state’s transportation department’s Office of Urban Mobility, said he and other staffers overseeing the contentious Rose Quarter development are focused on the same goals they agreed to earlier this year at the behest of the politicians and Black-led civic group who pushed the state to do more before walking away. The leaders who quit in protest said transportation agency officials said the right things but their actions belied their words.

In an interview, Finn said the state is committed to prove that “we’re for real in what we say, that we’re being genuine and that we’re really trying to do things differently.”

His comments came a little more than two weeks after nonprofit Albina Vision Trust, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced they would no longer support the freeway project.

That June 30 decision caught state transportation officials off-guard and raised questions about the long-term fate of the project, which is expected to cost at least $715 million to complete and likely significantly more, should it include key aspects community groups and those politicians pushed for -including robust freeway covers that can accommodate buildings.

The mammoth project, which officials say addresses the bottleneck on Interstates 5 and 84, would take place in the heart of the historic Albina neighborhood that was once home to nearly 80% of Oregon’s Black population. Beginning in the 1950s, the black community housed there was torn asunder by forces including racism, construction of Interstate 5, eminent domain and gentrification.

Albina Vision Trust and elected leaders had called for the project to make unprecedented strides to repair and uplift the area and to make Black people and institutions primary beneficiaries.

In its first public meeting since those key partners walked away, Oregon’s Transportation Commission heard a project update Wednesday from Finn and other project leaders. In that briefing, the commissioners and state officials never directly named the politicians who walked away nor directly referred to the nonprofit Albina Vision Trust or to the Black community.

Megan Channell, the longtime project leader, said the project is only 15% designed and contractors and the public can help shape the development going forward. “If I leave you with nothing else today,” she told commissioners, “I just want to emphasize and put a fine point on we are very early in design.”

As some evidence of its ongoing commitment, Finn said, the agency hired a Black-owned firm as a key contractor overseeing the years-long design and construction process. And it will begin a feasibility study of freeway caps capable of supporting housing and other heavy construction.

The Rose Quarter project was one of the cornerstones of a landmark 2017 statewide transportation bill funded by the Legislature. The project includes adding shoulders in both directions on I-5 between the I-84 and I-405 interchanges, as well as merging lanes for nearly two miles. Plans also include capping the freeway in some fashion and building a new bike and pedestrian only crossing, as well as new seismically sound overpasses and offramps.

Commissioners and staff said they planned to keep doing the work.

“I’ve never seen this kind of work done on any mega project, or any project, period,” said Julie Brown, a commissioner from the Rogue Valley. “We are trying to be careful,” she said. “We are listening.”

One of the largest sticking points in the dispute with community groups was what to do with the freeway covers, which were initially designed to be building-less open spaces. The Albina Vision Trust and others have lobbied hard for more robust and broader caps to accommodate buildings.

In May 2019, the state said it would hire an outside contractor to analyze that feasibility, but nothing happened throughout that calendar year or into early 2020. At a January meeting, the commission pledged, after persistent advocacy from Albina Vision Trust, to study the issue. It said they would have a report by October.

On Wednesday, Channell said the state has hired ZGF architects to conduct that analysis. Finn said that report would likely be completed this fall, though he didn’t specify a month. “We’re still very committed to the work,” he said.

Finn said he had not spoken with Winta Yohannes, executive director of the nonprofit group seeking to revitalize the Albina neighborhood surrounding the freeway, since she wrote her letter denouncing the project and its leaders.

“We’re going to keep our promises to the Albina Vision Trust,” Finn added.

This week, the state announced it had hired a construction and design team to move forward on key aspects of the project, which officials stressed Wednesday remains 85% of the way from final design. The main contractor is Sundt Construction, a Tempe, Ariz.-based company that built the Sellwood Bridge in conjunction with a local firm, Slayden Construction.

On the Rose Quarter project, Sundt is working with locally owned Raimore Construction, a Black-owned contracting firm that has made its name through working with TriMet for decades. Raimore is the general contractor on the Division Transit Project, the transit agency’s first high-capacity bus line. According to state officials, Raimore would likely be paid more than $100 million for its work on the Rose Quarter project, which would be the largest minority contractor in the agency’s history.

Yohannes, the nonprofit leader with Albina Vision Trust, declined to answer specific questions for this story. “I think our concerns have been well-documented to date as has our support for minority contractors,” she said, “including Raimore.”

When informed of Finn’s comments, Commissioner Eudaly issued her own statement. “ODOT should stop work on the project,” she said in an email to The Oregonian. “Its actions, proceeding as if nothing happened after losing support from Albina Vision, Commissioner Pederson, Mayor Wheeler and me, are speaking loudly about its intentions for our community.”

On July 6, the City Council signed a letter stating that city offices would “suspend all operations until further notice” related to the project. “This includes attending meetings, providing technical support or responding to project emails.”

According to city records, the transportation bureau has thus far devoted roughly $600,000 in staff time to the project. Those funds would be reimbursed by ODOT, but the City Council has not voted to finalize the intergovernmental agreement with the state. “In terms of what this means for the project overall, ODOT will be in a better position to answer that,” city transportation spokesman John Brady said last week.

Finn, formerly a long-time chief of staff to then-Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman, said he is respecting the city’s request not to communicate about the project.

“We’re still early, we’re still at a point where a lot can be done to shape the project,” he added.

The executive steering committee, the group set up to help advise the project that Eudaly, Albina Vision Trust and other groups left last month, will meet next in September.

Alando Simpson, a Black Portlander who sits on the commission and co-chairs that committee, said Wednesday there is “clearly a lot more work to go” on the Rose Quarter project.

He said whatever happens, he will be “adamant” that the project remain focused on restorative justice, which seeks to help Black Oregonians recoup what was lost in the Albina area by physically reconnecting the neighborhood and creating opportunities for wealth generation in the area.

He also credited Kris Strickler, who took over as the transportation director last fall, for leading what he said is a “paradigm shift” and culture shift at the agency.