91ÊÓƵ

Three state-funded interchange projects currently are under way in the Portland-metro area, but the federal money needed to build access roads to connect those interchanges with key industrial developments in the Portland metro area may be in jeopardy.

The Oregon Jobs and Transportation Act of 2009 allocated $45 million in state money for improvements on the U.S. Route 26 interchange near Hillsboro, $24 million for interchange improvements at Interstate 84 near Troutdale and $100 million for the Sunrise Corridor, said Rian Windsheimer, Region 1 policy and development manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

But the state needs federal money to build access roads from the interchange to nearby prospective industrial developments, Windsheimer said.

Metro had expected to receive $142.6 million from the Federal Highway Trust Fund for a three-year period from 2016-2018. Metro’s Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation earmarked $24.6 million of that to build the access roads to connect the three interchanges with key industrial developments.

But the U.S. Department of Transportation announced last month that the highway trust fund, which has been identified as having a $14 billion shortfall, could run out of money as early as August if Congress doesn’t find a way to infuse more money into the fund.

ODOT would lose an estimated $150 million if funds are not reallocated, about 30 percent of its budget, state officials have said. Metro also could suffer a 30 percent loss of funding.

And projects like the access roads could suffer the consequences.

The access roads are the last pieces of puzzles needed for industrial development near the three interchanges, said Andy Cotugno, Metro’s policy adviser.

“In all three cases, the projects have been under development for a long time,” he said. “This would be the last dollar in, so they are ready to go.”

Whether or not the access roads are built will have an immediate impact on jobs and construction activity in the region.

“These have the most direct linkage to industrial land readiness – that’s a really important outcome for the region because we have a limited supply of industrial land ready, said Susie Lahsene, transportation and land use policy manager for the Port of Portland. “In order to compete in the marketplace, we need to have to have a good supply ready.”

The port would stand to benefit from one of the funding allocations, an $8 million investment to complete local access roads from I-84 to the Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park, near Portland-Troutdale Airport and the confluence of the Columbia and Sandy rivers.

The 300-acre property, which the Port of Portland purchased from Alcoa-Reynolds Aluminum about 10 years ago, was a former Superfund site that was cleaned up to meet industrial standards, Lahsene said.

FedEx Ground built a 441,000-square-foot freight distribution hub on 78 acres at the former brownfield site. Ten or 11 other sites could be developed with transportation improvements made accessing the Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park, according to the port.

The federal money Metro had tagged for access roads in the area would provide a huge boost to getting those sites closer to development, Lahsene said.

“We completed the transportation access to the FedEx site, but for the rest of the sites to be developable, quite a lot of work needs to be done,” she said. “There are a number of interested users. The rest of the sites are not really developable and need work on transportation, utilities and other mitigation. Until we can get to that point, these sites are on hold.”

The industrial area in the urban growth boundary north of Hillsboro also would benefit from access roads paid for with federal money.

Plans to give industrial access from the U.S. 26/Brookwood Parkway Interchange would open up development for several high-tech and industrial companies, including Intel.

“Intel is in the process of expanding two of its buildings – they’re ramping up,” said Stephen Roberts, communications coordinator for Washington County’s Land Use and Transportation Department. “Part of this is providing access for that facility. A bigger part of this is providing capacity for additional (growth) that’s expected to happen up there.”

Access roads would be built and upgraded west of the Brookwood Parkway and north of Northwest Evergreen Road. Project Azalea, a sizable chip manufacturing plant, has eyed the area that would be made accessible by the roads, Roberts said.

The third project that Metro pegged for construction would be connecting the $130 million Sunrise Corridor Project, which will connect I-205 and Southeast 122^nd Avenue with a new highway. The highway will be built through the Lawnfield Industrial Area in Clackamas County, but the growing industrial area still needs connections to the new highway through local access roads.

The $8.3 million local roads project would connect the highway project with manufacturing and distribution centers including Safeway and Fred Meyer, said Mike Bezner, engineering manager for Clackamas County.

“Considering the construction of Sunrise, local connections are very important to maintain access to the area,” he said.