Region's Growth Creates High Demand for Transportation Infrastructure

After a decade of unprecedented population and employment growth and more growth to come, the metropolitan Portland area must maintain and develop its transportation infrastructure to keep people and goods moving and maintain economic prosperity.

Without Transportation Improvements, the Economy will Degrade

Continued population and employment growth without a significant investment in transportation infrastructure will hurt our economy and degrade our quality of life. Investments in road improvements have a direct relationship to jobs and tax revenues.

Oregon's economic health is closely tied to the metropolitan Portland region's ability to move people and freight. Oregon is highly trade-dependent and uniquely positioned as a gateway to the global economy. Maintaining transportation connections among ports, manufacturing and industrial centers, agricultural regions, and other key locations helps keep Oregon's economy strong.

Without additional investments, the metropolitan Portland region will experience in congestion. Vehicle hours of delay will grow by 700% to over 60,000 hours per day by time will increase by 27% per trip.

Transportation System Performance without additional investments
(percent change from 1994 to 2020)

Average vehicle speed -24 %
Average travel time +27 %
Miles of congested freeway +146 %
Miles of congested arterials +310 %

Increases in congestion will affect the movement of freight and raise the cost of doing business. By 2020, a typical truck trip will take 11 minutes longer than today, and trucks will make an average of three fewer trips per day.' Today, an hour-long tie-up on 1-5 between Salem and Wilsonville at rush hour costs about $112,000.

Freight and Business Impacts

  • Increased costs for employees and freight
  • Typical truck trips take 11 minutes longer in 2020
  • The average truck will make 3 fewer deliveries per day - increasing shipping costs.
Transportation costs continue to rise.  In 2004 alone, the cost of paving asphalt increased by 13%, while raw steel prices increased by 30%. One dollar of preservation can save four dollars of deferred maintenance.

Oregon has the lowest taxpayer investment in transportation per mile and per capita on the West Coast. Even though the state gas tax in Oregon is similar to other Western states, the total auto related revenues raised in Oregon are substantially lower.

This page is excerpted from "Metropolitan Portland Transportation Challenges"

For more information contact
Rex Burkholder, Metro Councilor and Chair, JPACT 503.797.1546 burkholderr@metro.dst.or.us
or
Richard Brandman, Deputy Planning Director 503.797.1749 brandmanr@metro.dst.or.us

JPACT represents the 25 cities and urban portions of three counties of the metropolitan Portland area as well as the City of Vancouver, Clark County, the Port of Portland, ODOT, DEQ, WSDOT and Trimet. JPACT members are:

Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder, Chair Metro Councilor Rod Park, Vice Chair
Metro Councilor Brian Newman Commissioner Bill Kennemer, Clackamas County
Commissioner Maria Rojo de Steffey, Multnomah County Commissioner Roy Rogers, Washington County
Commissioner Sam Adams, Portland Councilor Lynn Peterson, Lake Oswego
Councilor Steve Owen, Fairview Mayor Robert Drake, Beaverton
Mayor Royce Pollard, Vancouver Commissioner Steve Stuart, Clark County
Bill Wyatt, Port of Portland Fred Hansen, TriMet
Matthew Garrett. ODOT Don Wagner, Washington DOT
Stephanie Hallock, DEQ

Portland's Industrial Districts and Large Industrial Firms

The Rivergate District

Rivergate Facilities

Rivergate Growth Capacity

Truck Origins and Destinations

  • Trucks will continue to originate from the same zones as in the year 2000.

  • In 2020, there will be more "heavy" trucks originating from Swan Island, Airport, and Brooklyn Yard areas.

  • In 2020, there will be more "medium" trucks originating from the Happy Valley and Pleasant Valley areas.

Projected Truck Volumes for the Year 2020

  • These truck routes go through, not to, our neighborhoods

  • This "traffic pattern" is home to thousands of citizens and will increase by 50%

  • This lack of infrastructure is costly to freight movement and can be corrected by the proposed arterial

This map, reprinted from the St. John's Truck Strategy study, shows the location of the major industrial areas on the north peninsula. The historic 1930's St. John's bridge, downtown and residential streets are currently truck routes. The St. John's bridge is the only bridge to the peninsula. These truck routes go through neighborhoods where the slow travel speeds make freight movement costly. Worse yet, truck traffic is projected to increase by 50% by 2020. The proposed arterial is a sensible solution to this problem.

East-West Corridors Completed by New Strategically Placed Bridges

Existing conditions
Notice the simlarity in all these maps - they show the importance of these areas to our regional and national ecomony.

Existing conditions

Inadequate transportation infrastructure describes the Historic 1931 St. Johns Bridge as the only bridge to the north peninsula, in business terms.

  • These truck routes go through, not to, our neighborhoods

  • This "traffic pattern" is home to thousands of citizens and will increase by 50%

  • This lack of infrastructure is costly to freight movement and can be corrected by the proposed arterial

This map, reprinted from the St. John's Truck Strategy study, shows the location of the major industrial areas on the north peninsula. The historic 1930's St. John's bridge, downtown and residential streets are currently truck routes. The St. John's bridge is the only bridge to the peninsula. These truck routes go through neighborhoods where the slow travel speeds make freight movement costly. Worse yet, truck traffic is projected to increase by 50% by 2020. The proposed arterial is a sensible solution to this problem.

At ground level its unsafe, dirty, unpleasant, unhealthy, economically damaging and attacks any quality of life and fairness. The Inadequacy of our current transportation system has damage our citizens and business community. When you look at the North peninsula as a international place to do business, does driving though residential areas, downtown St. Johns and crossing the Historic St. Johns really say Yes, we are open for business and we are serious about supplying business and communities with the tools and infrastructure to be the best company that can develop into in this 21st century.