Oregon’s Interstate 5 Rose Quarter project in Portland will widen the highway in a highly congested area where three interstates converge, but several community advocacy groups are trying to stop it.
Led by No More Freeways, six advocacy groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. The groups argue that the federal agencies violated environmental standards when giving the green light to the I-5 Rose Quarter project.
Arguments against the I-5 Rose Quarter project center on the idea that highway widening increases traffic over time.
I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project
According to the official website, the I-5 Rose Quarter project will “improve safety and congestion where three major interstates converge and to reconnect the Albina neighborhood through the construction of a highway cover over a portion of I-5.”
Part of the project includes adding auxiliary lanes and wider shoulders. Defined as “ramp-to-ramp connections,’ auxiliary lanes allow motorists to travel between Interstates 84 and 405 without having to merge into the two existing lanes on I-5, thereby reducing congestion. The Oregon Department of Transportation estimates one-third of traffic will stay on new auxiliary lanes.
According to ODOT, the 1.8-mile stretch of the I-5 Rose Quarter project is the only two-lane section of the interstate in a major urban area between Canada and Mexico. The section is the top traffic bottleneck in Oregon and the 28th worst freight bottleneck in the nation.
Lawsuit challenging I-5 Rose Quarter project
Although the state claims the project will improve safety and mobility, advocacy groups argue it will do the opposite.
In the lawsuit filed in an Oregon federal court, No More Freeways, along with five other organizations, claim FHWA did not conduct proper environmental studies when approving the I-5 Rose Quarter project.
Per the National Environmental Policy Act, an environmental assessment is required for any major federal actions, including highway projects. If a project is determined to significantly affect the quality of the human environment, a more rigorous environmental impact statement must be conducted.
For the I-5 Rose Quarter project, FHWA issued a Finding of No Significant Impact in its environmental assessment, allowing it to move forward with no further environmental studies. However, advocacy groups say the agency got it wrong, and a more detailed environmental impact statement is needed. A similar argument is being made in lawsuits challenging New York City’s congestion pricing program.
No More Freeways argues that the project will result in significant adverse environmental impacts, including more – not less – congestion and vehicle miles traveled on I-5.
Consequently, air pollution and greenhouse gases in the area will increase and safety will decrease.
Specifically, the lawsuit claims that FHWA used outdated transportation modeling that does not reflect “the best available science on the effects of induced demand.” In the short term, highway widening will lower congestion and travel times. In the long term, motorists will be incentivized to drive more with the reduced travel times, eventually recreating the same traffic conditions the widening was supposed to solve.
“As to highways, the effect of the project will be to increase capacity of the highway, creating induced demand that will then cause the new larger highway to also be filled to capacity, something commonly known as the ‘fundamental law of road congestion,’” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also claims the I-5 Rose Quarter project environmental assessment failed to meaningfully address alternatives, including congestion pricing.
“This lawsuit is our community’s opportunity to prevent ODOT from shoving all the air pollution and traffic that an expanded freeway brings through the recovering Albina neighborhood,” Chris Smith, co-founder of No More Freeways, said in a statement. LL
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