FILE - The I-5 freeway is seen through the fencing at the back of Harriet Tubman Middle School (left) in North Portland, April 9, 2021. ODOT's proposed Rose Quarter expansion would bring the freeway even closer to the school grounds.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Opponents of a plan to widen Interstate 5 through Portland’s Rose Quarter are once again suing, arguing that federal officials illegally greenlit the project without closely analyzing its environmental toll.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court Friday by a coalition of local advocacy and community groups that includes No More Freeways, Neighbors for Clean Air, the Eliot Neighborhood Association, BikeLoud and the Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates. If successful, it would force the Federal Highway Administration to slow the project as it takes a deep dive into possible outcomes.
“The project may result in significant adverse environmental impacts, including increased congestion and increase vehicular miles driven in the Project Area, resulting in increased air pollution and greenhouse gases, and decreased safety along the freeway and on city streets,” the complaint says.
The litigation is just the latest volley in a long-running battle between foes of widening the freeway and federal, state and local officials who support it. Many of the plaintiffs in the latest filing are also part of a lawsuit filed in state court in May against local transportation officials.
Two prior suits making many of the same arguments were dropped in 2022, when the I-5 project was substantially redesigned.
The complaint filed Friday accuses federal highway officials of glossing over significant impacts the plaintiffs say will arise if I-5 is widened to include two additional auxiliary lanes. The project area includes a nearly two-mile stretch of I-5 where two other freeways — I-84 and I-405 — merge into the busy north-south corridor.
The proposal is a major priority for business and trucking interests, along with local and state elected officials who say Rose Quarter presents the state’s worst traffic bottleneck. It’s also won support from community groups because it includes plans to cap the freeway and reconnect a piece of the historically Black Albina Neighborhood severed when I-5 was constructed.
No More Freeways and its allies take no issue with the plan to cover the interstate. But they argue any relief to congestion along I-5 will be relatively short-lived. In the long-run, they say, traffic jams will return — bringing higher volumes of vehicles and more greenhouse gas emissions.
“You don’t need to widen the freeway to cap the freeway,” Joe Cortright, an economist and member of No More Freeways, said in an interview with OPB Friday. “In our view if you right-size the project you could build it much more cheaply. It would have far fewer negative environmental impacts. It could be done [more] quickly.”
Federal highways officials don’t share the concerns. In March, they issued a document known as a “finding of no significant impact,” allowing the Rose Quarter project to move forward without needing a rigorous environmental impact statement, a federal process that could add well over a year to the project’s timeline.
While the Federal Highway Administration found that there could be short-term air quality, noise, and traffic impacts while the project was built, it said “long-term air pollution effects from implementation of the Project are not anticipated.” Cortright and his allies say that conclusion was based on inaccurate and outdated traffic modeling.
The Federal Highway Administration did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the lawsuit on Friday afternoon.
No More Freeways and its allies say in the complaint that federal officials ignored a host of significant possible impacts that mandate a closer look under the law. That includes more traffic and associated greenhouse gas emissions, but also disruption to businesses, worse air quality for schoolchildren, and more.
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The plaintiffs also contend that ODOT is proposing to widen the freeway far more than necessary to add two additional lanes, raising the possibility the agency will simply restripe the interstate in the future to allow more cars. They say the federal government should analyze the outcomes of such additions.
And they argue that federal officials failed to consider other strategies that could ease congestion without widening the freeway, such as tolling.
“We want to see more alternatives analyzed,” said Chris Smith, another No More Freeways member.
The claims in the latest suit are thematically similar to those made earlier this year, when the advocacy groups sued state transportation officials, arguing that the project ran afoul of plans dictating how growth must proceed in the Portland metro area. That lawsuit is playing out in state court. The Oregon Department of Transportation has declined to comment on pending litigation.
The fight over the freeway project comes at a pivotal time for the state’s transportation system. ODOT is sounding the alarm that its funding sources are flagging as the cost of maintaining roads has spiked. Without an intervention from lawmakers, the agency has said it will have to ax around 1,000 employees and slash services like striping lanes and plowing roads.
The question of how to shore up ODOT’s budget is expected to be a central focus when the Legislature convenes early next year. Many of the lawmakers at the heart of those discussions say one of their priorities will be finishing the Rose Quarter project.
But freeway opponents argue ODOT’s financial position would be far more sunny if the agency would nix its plan to widen I-5. The freeway project was first promised in 2017, when construction costs were far lower than they are today. The state says it’s short up to $1.3 billion for a project it now expects could cost nearly $2 billion.
The majority of the money the state has on hand to build the project comes from a $450 million federal grant awarded earlier this year. ODOT has signaled it might apply for another $750 million grant, but that will require the state to spend $250 million that could otherwise be used for other necessities.