Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has a simple message for advocates of federal money for a new Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River, a revamping of the Rose Quarter interchange of I-5 and I-84, and a new bus rapid transit route along 82nd Avenue.

That is: Everyone should be on the same page, with local conflicts resolved — and then the Department of Transportation will help make their plans a reality.

Buttigieg spoke to reporters Friday, July 7, at the close of a two-hour swing that took in a stop at the Southeast Campus of Portland Community College and a 20-minute tour of 82nd Avenue en route to Portland International Airport. He spent most of two days visiting projects in Washington state, including a stop earlier Friday in Washougal.

His visit was to promote some of the work being done under a 2021 law — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — that provides $1.2 trillion over the next six years for transportation and other public works. Though some of the money simply renews federal aid to highways and bridges, much of it is available for new projects. The law gives Buttigieg the authority to allocate $100 billion for projects of national significance.

“The whole reason we fought so hard for that law to come about — with its record funding for transit, its accommodation for active transportation such as walking and biking and making sure it is safe, its historic funding for the improvement of roads and bridges — is that when we do, it brings opportunity to more people,” Buttigieg said.

“And we can do it on terms that are better, smarter, fairer and more inclusive than what we inherited from the past. We will be developing infrastructure that our kids and their kids will be relying on for the rest of their lives. This is why transportation matters.”

He made no commitments of money for local projects, however.

Oregon and Washington have now pledged $1 billion each toward a new Interstate 5 bridge to replace the aging spans (1917 and 1958) that connect Portland with Vancouver, Wash., across the Columbia River. After a decade’s delay — Oregon pledged its share back in 2013, but the Washington Senate did not — both states now appear ready to proceed with a joint request for federal grants. (Tolls are expected to cover the rest of the cost; the total is now estimated around $6 billion.)

“I can’t speak in advance of a competitive grant process that is in the future,” Buttigieg told reporters. “But what I will say is that I have noticed the commitment that exists on both sides of the state line of the collaboration and real resources that the states are bringing to the table. The more that one or two states can do that, the stronger that is going to make a case for federal funds.”

Oregon also seeks to redo the Rose Quarter interchange at I-5 and I-84. Part of the project involves widening I-5, a step opposed by environmental groups, and part involves a widely supported partial cap over I-5 to reconnect the Albina neighborhood that was split by the highway’s construction in the 1960s. The cap, however, will raise the project’s potential cost to as much as $1.5 billion, depending on the height of buildings allowed on the cap.

Unlike the I-5 bridge bonds, the 2023 Legislature took no action on a proposed pledge to fund the Rose Quarter project. The Oregon Transportation Commission is reassessing the status of this and other metro area projects that hinged in part on proposed regional tolling, which Gov. Tina Kotek has delayed until Jan. 1, 2026.

Buttigieg said it’s up to local participants to work out their differences before they seek federal funding, although some money has gone toward planning.

“We expect a lot of the key decisions about project scope, design and delivery will happen closer to home, and by rights, not made by the federal government,” he said. “What we want to do is provide that kind of material and moral support for reconnecting communities in a more inclusive fashion. We want to see that community consensus take hold, and then be there with the wind at their backs.”

The same 2021 federal law sets aside $1 billion specifically for steps to reconnect the Albina neighborhood and other communities that were impacted by construction of the original interstate highway system. A chief advocate was U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Portland and a longtime advocate of alternative transportation.

“The congressman and all of the leaders here worked to make sure that we had the first-of-its-kind federal fund that is dedicated to changing transportation infrastructure so that it always connects and never divides,” Buttigieg said.

“I suspect we will see many competitive applications coming from this region. We will be supporting as many as we possibly can, because we cannot let the future be like the past when it comes to the impact on neighborhoods — disproportionately Black and low-income neighborhoods — that were divided or sometimes removed entirely by those construction projects. In the future, we can have transportation that benefits everybody — and nobody is worse off when we correct those harms from the past.”

Blumenauer, who stood next to Buttigieg, interjected half-jokingly: “We are working to make his decisions easier.”

82nd Avenue bus tour

The primary purpose of Buttigieg’s brief visit was to learn more about what local officials and others envision for 82nd Avenue, seven miles of which have been transferred from the Oregon Department of Transportation to the Portland Bureau of Transportation under an agreement that took effect last year.

Among others on the 20-minute bus tour were Blumenauer, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Beaverton — her district includes part of Portland — Portland City Commissioner Mingus Mapps, Sam Desue Jr., TriMet general manager, and Curtis Robinhold, executive director of the Port of Portland. That agency operates Portland International Airport and oversees a $2 billion renovation that President Joe Biden himself visited in April 2022.

Gov. Kotek and Portland Community College President Adrien Bennings spoke at PCC’s Southeast Campus, where the tour originated, but were not on the bus.

Once a state highway, 82nd Avenue has recorded 142 crashes — and 74 pedestrians and 30 bicyclists were injured — between 2015 and 2019. Seven of the nine deaths during the period were pedestrians or bicyclists.

Meanwhile, TriMet, the regional transit agency, seeks a bus rapid transit route on 82nd Avenue similar to what it operates now on Division Street. That route opened last fall. TriMet bus route 72, which runs along 82nd, has the highest ridership in Oregon.

Buttigieg said the 2021 law provides more money for public transit than any previous federal legislation.

“We know that no transit agency can do it alone,” he said. “Part of what that money goes to is better, cleaner greener buses and better facilities that create a better and stronger case for people — whether you are reliant on transit because you don’t have a car, or whether you have a car but you see transit is a better option for you anyway.”

Portland Bureau of Transportation officials plan more sidewalks and pedestrian crossings on 82nd.

Buttigieg heard from advocates such as state Rep. Khanh Pham and Metro Councilor Duncan Hwang — they represent the Jade District, which has a high concentration of Asians — and Zachary Lauritzen, interim executive director of Oregon Walks and 82nd Avenue Coalition and project manager. Pham and Hwang said afterward that improving transit, sidewalks and crossings will open the way to more development, including housing deemed “affordable” at 30% of household income.

Pham: “I could tell that he seemed really engaged. I think it will help us build a stronger partnership for federal support of this project. It will help us invest in walkable communities, and transit is catalytic for other investments, and I hope for more affordable housing.”

Hwang: “I really liked how the secretary talked about implementing community visions coming from the ground up. We view 82nd Avenue as a holistic community development project. In my role at the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, we are excited about building more housing… and there is other development that, along with transit improvements, will make 82nd the corridor we all want to see.”

Buttigieg said:

“Thanks for helping me understand how all these different modes of transportation fit together. We are resolutely a pro-transit administration. We are proud of that. We see the opportunities around active transportation and we recognize the complex tradeoffs involved. We also know that unless there is state and local leadership, no level of government can do anything.”

Buttigieg is a former two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. Biden named him transportation secretary at the age of 38.

“I’m now going to have a personal interest in watching the future of 82nd Avenue and how the future of this region develops,” he said.

He said the federal government will have an increasing interest in what are known as “orphan highways,” which once moved traffic and freight between cities but are now urban arterials. The 2023 Legislature, after a request from Tigard to transfer part of Hall Boulevard, passed a bill to set up a more formal process of determining how such state highway segments are transferred to cities.

After Buttigieg departed from the airport, Blumenauer said to local officials and advocates: “I think this was time well spent. We will be following up with him in D.C., but I think you helped make a very profound impression.”