PORTLAND - Five community advocacy organizations filed a lawsuit Friday against the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) demanding a moratorium on the planning for the proposed $1.9 Billion Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion. The lawsuit alleges that ODOT’s proposal fails to comply with the City of Portland’s Comprehensive Plan and Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan, citing numerous specific details of the proposed expansion that are demonstrably out of alignment with the city’s tentative approval of the expansion back in 2012. Most notably, community groups are concerned with ODOT’s proposal to double or triple the width of the roadway wide enough to include ten lanes of freeway, in direct contradiction of the city’s formally adopted climate, transportation and lane use plans. No More Freeways joined Neighbors for Clean Air, Oregon and SW Washington Families for Safe Streets, BikeLoudPDX, and the Eliot Neighborhood Association as litigants in the complaint.
“It’s absurd for ODOT to claim that their proposed $1.9 billion 10-lane highway is in compliance with the city’s existing plans for climate action, sustainable transportation investment or neighborhood development,” said Chris Smith, a spokesperson for No More Freeways. “We filed this lawsuit because state law requires ODOT to follow the city’s clean air and climate goals. ODOT shouldn’t be allowed to advance a project that brazenly violates the city’s adopted plans.” “For generations, ODOT has been prioritizing moving car traffic through the Eliot Neighborhood instead of protecting the health and well-being of local residents,” said Allan Rudwick, the Chair of the Eliot Neighborhood Association’s Land Use and Transportation Committee. “Recently, we have seen several new residential construction projects between I-5 and the Willamette River for the first time in nearly a century. The Eliot Neighborhood needs more homes, not more highways. Routing lots of extra traffic onto our roads may put a damper on this revitalization for another century and we continue to oppose ODOT’s road-widening project.”
“Make no mistake - ODOT’s plans to dramatically widen I-5 would significantly pollute the air in the Albina neighborhood and actively harm the health and well being of North Portland residents,” said Nakisha Nathan, co-executive director with Neighbors for Clean Air. “We are joining this litigation as local advocates for clean air and healthy communities who know that ODOT needs to prioritize transportation improvements that support investments in the Albina neighborhood, which has already suffered enough from reckless, polluting expansions like this one.”
“ODOT has continued to prioritize investment in endless freeway expansion instead of targeting improvements to streets like North Lombard, where my son was killed,” said Michelle DuBarry, whose 22-month-old son was struck by a driver in a crosswalk in 2010. “Traffic fatalities in Oregon are up 70% since 2010, and as an advocacy organization comprised of Oregonians who have been injured or lost loved ones to traffic violence, we’re proud to stand with community partners in demanding ODOT be held accountable and forced to reconsider this mindless expansion.”
“We’ve asked for years for basic investments in safety on the state roads that kill Portlanders every year,” said David Binnig, a spokesperson with BikeLoudPDX. “Instead of honoring its responsibility to keep all road users safe, ODOT is intent on pouring billions of dollars into freeway widening projects. We hope this lawsuit will force the agency to consider investments that better meet our city’s most urgent needs.”
Since 2017, No More Freeways has continued to demand that ODOT conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Proposed Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion that considers alternatives to expansion. Seven years later, after numerous cost escalations, design flaws, legal initiatives, multiple advisory committees, over $110m of ODOT spending and literal thousands of public comments from the public, we continue to call attention to this project in hopes that state and federal leadership will direct ODOT to pursue more cost-effective alternatives that do not include additional expansion of freeway capacity.
This is the third lawsuit filed against ODOT regarding the proposed $1.9 billion Rose Quarter Freeway Expansion. In 2021, No More Freeways joined Neighbors for Clean Air and the Eliot NA in filing a complaint that ODOT had not fully considered alternatives to expansion in line with federal standards dictated by the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). No More Freeways also filed a lawsuit against ODOT contending a lack of compliance with Portland’s Comprehensive Plan. Both lawsuits were voluntarily dismissed in 2022 after FHWA withdrew their approval of the project. With federal approval of the modified project regranted this past spring, No More Freeways has resubmitted this complaint, again challenging ODOT’s assertion this project is in line with Portland’s comprehensive plan.
As stated in March, No More Freeways remains a vocal champion of remediating the Albina neighborhood with an investment in freeway caps. 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. The organization continues to demand that ODOT conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement that considers alternatives to build these caps and remediate the neighborhood without the additional freeway lanes and attendant negative consequences.
Eliot Neighborhood 