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In a not too distant future, a MAX light-rail line will run south from downtown Portland to Bridgeport Village, taking commuters and shoppers 12 miles from end to end. The project is expected to cost $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion and produce infrastructure to serve 43,000 riders per day by 2035.

Behind the scenes, transportation officials and elected representatives have been making decisions about the specific route. Metro in March produced an initial route proposal for local government personnel, business owners and citizens to weigh in on.

Metro wants to 鈥渕ake sure people get a chance to comment on something that might be real,鈥� project manager Chris Ford said. 鈥淚t’s not a staff recommendation, but it is a realistic option.鈥�

Ryan Sweeney just hopes the route doesn’t go through his restaurant.

Sweeney is part of the family that owns the Village Inn, a franchise restaurant pinched between Bridgeport Village and Interstate 5 on Southwest 72nd Avenue.

Sweeney was invited to meet with a Metro representative to discuss the route as part of the regional agency’s outreach to businesses that could be affected by the light-rail line.

鈥淗e rolled out one of those big maps,鈥� Sweeney recalled. 鈥淚 could tell right away 鈥� The plans for the project completely engulf our property. We kind of had to digest that information.鈥�

Small-business owners and leaders of major institutions along the route including Oregon Health & Science University are working to understand how the MAX light-rail line will affect them. The initial preferred route would move from the downtown Transit Mall south to Barbur Boulevard until the Barbur Transit Center, cross Interstate 5 on a new bridge and run adjacent to the interstate, then run onto 70th Avenue before crossing Oregon Route 217, pass by the Tigard Triangle with two stations, and join a railroad right-of-way west of I-5 before reaching Bridgeport Village.

OHSU officials are hopeful that the project will include an elevator and pedestrian bridge that would connect Barbur Boulevard to OHSU’s campus. An elevator tower would be built near the intersection of Barbur and Gibbs Street. Commuters could ride the elevator to a pedestrian bridge that would take them to the intersection of Campus Drive and Terwilliger Boulevard.

鈥淕enerally speaking, we’re supportive of the route recommendation from the (Metro) staff,鈥� said Brian Newman, vice president for campus development at OHSU.

OHSU has 12,000 employees at the Marquam Hill campus. That doesn’t count the 2,900 employees at the neighboring Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

In addition to the Marquam Hill connections, the initial route proposal envisions a connection to the Portland Community College-Sylvania campus. A Metro document also refers to future improvements to the Ross Island bridgehead 鈥渁s part of a larger effort.鈥�

Bridgeport Village, a shopping mall owned by CenterCal Properties, would be the southern terminus. A large park-and-ride facility is planned.

The project is an enormous undertaking 鈥� the first MAX expansion since the orange line opened in 2015 and a multibillion-dollar attempt to link Portland more closely with southwestern suburbs.

Construction would begin in 2023 and trains would begin operating along the line in 2027 if all goes according to plan.

The Southwest Corridor route is still being defined and could change. A draft environmental impact statement is expected to be released by the Federal Transit Administration in May.

The Portland and Tigard city councils, along with the TriMet board, are expected to vote on the route in July. The Metro board would follow with its own vote in mid-October on the final route, known as the locally preferred alternative. Metro must add the project to a regional transportation plan to make it eligible for federal funding. Metro would also issue a land-use final order authorizing TriMet to construct the route across multiple land-use jurisdictions.

The city of Portland is analyzing the feasibility of building a batch of affordable housing projects along the route in an attempt to get ahead of the gentrification that often comes with light-rail construction.

Mark McGirr, president of Atiyeh Bros. at 6750 S.W. Bonita Road in Tigard, said the route would minimize disruptions to businesses. McGirr is part of a coalition of nearby business owners who are weighing in on the proposed route.

鈥淭hey’ve landed on the right route in our area,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t makes sense to use that (railroad) right-of-way. It has less impact of businesses, faster travel time and has the best access to the residents and the transit-dependent people of Tigard.鈥�

The route also would proceed by Under Armour‘s new building at Duniway Park. The athletic apparel company did not respond to a request for comment.

The light-rail line would not enter downtown Tualatin because of significant infrastructure barriers.

鈥淲e wish it could have come into downtown Tualatin,鈥� Tualatin Chamber of Commerce CEO Linda Moholt said. 鈥淭hey just truly couldn’t figure out how to get through it without upsetting and moving and causing a tremendous amount of upheaval. They’ve come up with a good alternative.鈥�

Tualatin officials are studying ways to move people from Bridgeport Village to downtown Tualatin.

鈥淎lmost 90 percent of our workforce drives in every day, so being able to enhance transit is a goal of the community,鈥� Moholt said. 鈥淚t will help us move people and reduce congestion and improve environment quality of air and living conditions if we can get people out of single-occupancy vehicles.鈥�

Moholt said she supports the project even though it would create winners and losers. The Village Inn restaurant would be one of the businesses most impacted. It has become a community gathering place in its more than three decades in business, she said.

鈥淲e’ve got a thriving business here that people in the community have been coming to for years,鈥� Sweeney said.

The business already moved once, in 2005, to accommodate construction of Bridgeport Village. The restaurant moved about 500 yards across the intersection.

鈥淚t was a pretty sweet deal,鈥� Sweeney said. 鈥淲e got a new building out of it at the developer’s expense.鈥�

Sweeney is not as optimistic about moving a second time. The current location is highly visible from I-5 and Bridgeport Village, he said. Any new location might not be as good.

鈥淚’m looking around, and I don’t see any spaces that are as prime of a spot as I’m in currently,鈥� he said.