In May, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) submitted an application for a $750 million U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) INFRA grant that could make or break its plans to expand I-5 through Portland’s Rose Quarter. However, while ODOT waits for the award announcement, environmental and transportation advocates who oppose the freeway expansion are urging USDOT to turn down their request for the grant— or at least,  not award the entire amount. 

Freeway expansion opponents argue ODOT has concealed the true environmental costs of the Rose Quarter project in order to present it as a sustainable and equitable investment in Portland’s future. But their opposition to the grant award puts them at odds with local government officials and several community organizations, who have also written USDOT with letters of support. 

As the Oregon legislature gears up to pass what’s expected to be a landmark transportation funding bill in the 2025 legislative session, advocates want to make sure the state’s limited resources are directed toward making its transportation system more sustainable for all road users, not just increasing the capacity for cars on the freeway. They see USDOT’s ultimate decision, expected to be announced in August or September, as having major impacts not only on the future of the I-5 Rose Quarter project, but on Oregon’s entire transportation system and environmental policies.

The two faces of the I-5 Rose Quarter project

ODOT’s plan for I-5 at the Rose Quarter can be split into two general components: The freeway expansion and the highway covers. The transportation department has planned to expand the I-5 through the Rose Quarter since at least 2017, citing the need for congestion relief and safety improvements. Its current plan is to add “ramp-to-ramp connections,” or auxiliary lanes, on each direction of I-5 between I-84 and I-405, where the traffic bottleneck is most dire. 

The plan to cap the freeway came later, after years of pushback on environmental and racial justice grounds, as well as several major blows to the project from local and federal government officials. Now, ODOT plans to build a highway cover over I-5, essentially tunneling the freeway in order to create new surface street connections in the Rose Quarter area. ODOT says the cover will be able to support residential and commercial buildings, and will make it easier for people walking, biking, or rolling to get around. The project also includes a plan to build a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over I-5 near the Moda Center. 

The plan to cap I-5 and reconnect the historically Black Albina neighborhood was developed with strong input and leadership from local racial justice and neighborhood renewal advocates, notably from the Historic Albina Advisory Board and the organization Albina Vision Trust. 

Earlier this year, ODOT received a $450 million USDOT grant from through the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods (RCN) program, intended to pay for covers over I-5 in the Rose Quarter that will reconnect the bisected Albina neighborhood. But the entire Rose Quarter project is estimated to cost ODOT up to $1.9 billion, the vast majority of which is currently unfunded. The transportation department hopes to fill some of the gap with the $750 million federal INFRA grant. 

State transportation leaders believe ODOT is well-positioned for the INFRA grant, having already received federal funds through the RCN program, which earned them a “highly recommended” status from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). 

ODOT’s INFRA grant application included letters of support from representatives of Portland City Council, the Multnomah County Commission, Oregon Metro, TriMet, the Port of Portland, Oregon Trucking Association, and more. The Historic Albina Advisory Board and Albina Vision Trust, organizations which advocate for the renewal of the historically Black Albina neighborhood, also wrote in support of ODOT’s grant application. 

But those opposed to the freeway expansion say if ODOT is granted the funds, it will make it easier for the transportation agency to seek the remaining funds in the upcoming state legislative session. The 2025 Oregon legislative session is expected to net a major transportation funding bill, which environmental and transportation advocates across the state hope will fund bike, pedestrian, and transit safety projects—not a Portland freeway expansion. Advocates from groups like No More Freeways say they fully support the plan to cap I-5 and reconnect the Albina neighborhood. They just don’t think it should be contingent on expanding the freeway.  

Advocates tell USDOT: Respect the principle of the Reconnecting Communities program

Joe Cortright and Chris Smith, two longtime ODOT critics who founded the group No More Freeways in 2017 to oppose the I-5 Rose Quarter expansion, outlined their case against the grant in a July 3 letter to USDOT and FHWA leaders. 

Cortright and Smith wrote that instead of a $750 million grant, they support USDOT awarding ODOT $400 million, which, “along with a required local match, would allow completion of the cover and construction of the proposed bicycle/pedestrian bridge slightly south of the cover.” 

Their message was underscored in a July 24 letter to USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg initiated by the national transportation nonprofit America Walks, signed by 155 organizations across the country. The letter urges USDOT not to award federal funding to state transportation departments, including ODOT, who plan to widen freeways. 

The two letters issue an indictment of state transportation agencies who are using the principle of neighborhood restoration in order to seek federal funding for freeway expansion projects. USDOT describes the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program as a way for the federal transportation department to “acknowledge the historical injustices wrought by past transportation policy…and to [rectify] them through equitable, sustainable development.” 

In Cortright and Smith’s July 3 letter, they claim ODOT’s INFRA grant application was misleading, hiding the fact that the agency proposes to “double the width of the freeway from 82 feet to 160 feet (and as much as 250 feet in some sections).” They say “the project is engineered to be vastly wider than needed” if ODOT really planned on including only one additional auxiliary lane in each direction.

“In reality ODOT is proposing a roadway wide enough to accommodate a ten-lane urban freeway,” Cortright and Smith wrote. 

Cortright and Smith said they discovered the details of ODOT’s freeway expansion plans through a public records request, as it was not included in the project’s Environmental Assessment or INFRA grant application.

Ultimately, advocates from groups like No More Freeways say the RCN program cannot coexist with a USDOT that doles out federal funding to polluting, harmful freeway expansions. In Cortright and Smith’s letter, they wrote that it would be a shame “if the resources allocated to advance this critical initiative were squandered by state DOTs eager to dress up status quo freeway expansions.” They asked USDOT to ensure any INFRA award given to ODOT is limited to the highway covers and new bike and pedestrian infrastructure. 

“Widening I-5 at Rose Quarter should not enjoy the ‘Highly Recommended’ halo…when in fact the widening can only serve to further sever the community and impose unacceptable environmental and safety impacts,” Cortright and Smith wrote. “The opportunity to heal the injustice inflicted into this neighborhood must not be paired with ODOT’s attempt to further harm this community with greater air pollution, freeway traffic and carbon emissions.”