The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that state officials approved preliminary construction work on the planned Rose Quarter freeway project next month, even though they have only secured about $500 million to pay for a freeway megaproject that could cost more than $2 billion, (“Rose Quarter freeway project construction to begin in August despite $1.5B funding gap,” July 24). But how can this be?
Last year, the Oregon Department of Transportation and legislators on the joint transportation committee toured the state, gathering information on how to maintain “a safe, functional and efficient multimodal transportation system now and for the years to come.” They said they were focused on a “fix it first” policy of road maintenance rather than new construction; their stated priorities were safety, maintenance, operations improvement and completion of unfinished projects. Timely maintenance is much less expensive than reconstruction, and Oregon cannot afford to waste.
Throughout the committee’s listening tour, it heard testimony favoring safe active transportation, especially for those who prefer or depend on something other than single occupant vehicles…