The Portland City Council has authorized the Bureau of Transportation to apply to the U.S. Department of Transportation for three grants to help pay for critical improvements. The city will seek up to $20 million for safety upgrades and $5 million for paving on 122nd Avenue, up to $20 million for replacement of the Burgard Road Bridge, and up to $2 million for a railroad crossing elimination study.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill has opened doors of opportunity for federal money to help pay for numerous critical transportation improvements. Yet the amount of funding available pales in comparison to the need, and competition from other communities is fierce, PBOT analyst Mark Lear said during a City Council meeting on Wednesday.

“Right now, we think we’re in a strong position with some very competitive projects,” he said.

122nd Avenue is a major safety issue in Portland, PBOT division manager Kristin Hull said on Wednesday. The corridor reportedly ranks in the top 5 percent of the region’s most dangerous. PBOT is developing a plan that includes safety improvements such as street lighting, crossings, speed reader boards and more. PBOT at this point has funding for only a paving project and a few crossings.

The Burgard Road Bridge is reportedly in poor condition and seismically vulnerable. A replacement project is expected to cost $15 million. Allocation of grant money would require a 20 percent local match.

The proposed Central Eastside Railroad Crossing Elimination Study would examine in detail the growing issue of long freight train blockages of transportation routes in the Central Eastside and identify strategies to address issues.
“If you travel through the Central Eastside, you may have experienced delays related to freight trains running through the district,” Hull said.

For all three grants, funding sources exist to cover proposed matches.

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Twenty-one Oregon middle schools and high schools will soon have access to eight new career and technical education grant programs.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries and the Department of Education have awarded $1.84 million to schools for CTE programs that range in scope from manufacturing engineering to graphic arts design. Last year, the Oregon Legislature dedicated $2 million to revitalize CTE programs in schools. Schools were asked to create programs that pair students with private businesses and commercial institutions in order to leverage professional experience and matching dollars.

BOLI received 43 proposals totaling more than $11 million in requests for support. Along with the $1.8 million awarded, community and business partners contributed an additional $796,993 in matching funds.

Grant issuers chose proposals that demonstrated strong business partnerships, sustainability and curricula aligned with Oregon Diploma requirements and the skills necessary for high-wage careers.

The approved programs are as follows:

• Revitalization of Crook County School District Manufacturing Engineering Program: $234,900 award and $140,000 in anticipated matching funds for Crook County High School, Crook County Middle School, Paulina Community School, Pioneer Alternative High School
• Visual and Graphic Arts Design – $161,355 award and $37,216 in anticipated matching funds for Willamette High School
• Information Technology Careers in Rural Oregon – $108,062 award with $19,842 in anticipated matching funds for Joseph Charter School, Grant Union High School, Arlington Charter School
• Linn Benton Regional Trades Academy – $435,290 award with $398,395 in anticipated matching funds for South Albany High School, West Albany High School, Crescent Valley High School, Lebanon High School, and Corvallis High School.
• Multiple Pathways to Career and College Success – $145,436 award with $122,890 in anticipated matching funds for Canby High School.
• Industrial Automation and Control Systems Technology Project – $153,326 award with $38,000 in anticipated matching funds for Pine Eagle Charter School and Eagle Cap Innovative High School.
• Relevance and Rigor in New STEM Career Paths – $426,766 award with $10,000 in anticipated matching funds for Churchill High School and Eugene 4J School District.
• Building the Pipeline through Project-Based Learning – $170,365 award with $30,650 in anticipated matching funds for Kennedy High School, Mt. Angel Middle School, Silverton High School and Mark Twain Middle School.

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The Office of the State Treasurer announced Friday that it has received a share of a $250,000 grant to conduct a feasibility study of financing options for overdue public works projects.

According to a 2008 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, 25 percent of Oregon’s bridges are structurally deficient or obsolete, 122 of its dams are high hazard structures, 18 percent of its roads range in condition from mediocre to poor, and 42 percent of its major urban highways are congested.

Additionally, the report found that the state needed wastewater infrastructure improvements totaling $2.88 billion, and drinking water infrastructure improvements totaling $4.27 billion.

The grant comes from the New York-based Rockefeller Foundation and will be shared jointly by Oregon, Washington and California. Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler applied for the grant in coordination with Gov. John Kitzhaber and California Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

“Oregon’s infrastructure is inadequate and it undermines our competitiveness,” Wheeler said in a statement. “It is incumbent on us to seek innovative solutions to repair and enhance our transportation and energy facilities, which will put people to work in the short and the long term.”

The feasibility study will gauge whether it makes sense to finance some construction privately, and look into the possibility of creating a central clearinghouse for data about projects that need financing. Also, the study will learn how efforts might be coordinated through a new multistate collaboration.

The Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on General Government on Thursday preliminarily approved the grant, which will be part of the upcoming budget reconciliation bill.

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The ground-breaking ceremony for the Sellwood Bridge replacement project was held today. Polly Trottenberg, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, presented Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury with a check for $17.7 million, making official the awarding of TIGER III discretionary grant funds announced on advanced notice Dec. 12. The grant helped fill the budget gap that had plagued the project.

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The Sellwood Bridge is slated to have its last piece of funding fall into place.

According to an “” sent to Congress from the U.S. Department of Transportation today, the Sellwood Bridge will receive a $17.7 million grant through the TIGER III discretionary grant program.

According to the notice, the award “will provide the final piece of funding for the complete replacement of the Sellwood Bridge in Portland.”

The project is actually facing closer to $22.7 million in shortfall, but the TIGER grant will fill most of that hole.

The advance notice is not an official announcement, so Multnomah County is not considering the award public or official at this time.

“If it’s true that we’re getting $17.7 million from TIGER, our new shortfall would be $5 million, and we have some strategies for how we could close a shortfall so small in cost,” said Multnomah County spokesman Mike Pullen.

One of those strategies would be to access unused funds at the Oregon Legislature, he said.

Multnomah County had been working to close a budget gap in the $268.8 million project, which became larger this May when Clackamas County voters rejected a $5 vehicle registration fee increase that would have provided funds for the project. The federal TIGER grant was the project’s main hope for closing that gap as the year ended. The project team had created scaled-back “plan B” options in case the project’s funding did not come through.

Construction teams began work to prepare for the Sellwood Bridge replacement today.

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Beaverton was awarded a $1 million grant to accelerate its plans for sustainable development through the , the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced yesterday.

The city will use the funds to work through its 20-year Civic Plan and move forward on urban renewal projects, focusing on the 24-acre section of Beaverton‘s downtown known as the Creekside District.

The Civic Plan, which went through 18 months of drafts and public comment before City Council approved it in April 2011, includes initiatives such as the creation of an affordable housing development strategy, the expansion of the Beaverton Central Plant, and other projects that will help establish a downtown core and connect housing to public transportation.

“Now we’ll be able to get serious,” said Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle, adding that five city staffers will work through various development plans and associated coding issues. “We are anxious to deliver the projects we outlined for urban renewal, and this (grant) will help us plan and do it right.”

HUD received applications for more than $500 million through its Sustainable Communities Challenge and issued approximately $96 million to communities throughout the country.

Beaverton will manage the grant in partnership with Portland State University and Clean Water Services and with support from the State of Oregon Regional Solutions Center, Friends of Beaverton Creek and the Central Beaverton Neighborhood Association.

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Earlier this month, President Barack Obama directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to accelerate the awarding of $527 million in competitive TIGER grants. Multnomah County’s Sellwood Bridge replacement project is a contender for one for those grants, and county spokesman Mike Pullen said the faster timeline will be “a good thing” for the project.

“If we were to know by the end of December if we have all (the money asked for), or some lower amount, that would help us with a strategy for the legislative session in February,” Pullen said.

The federal DOT received approximately 1,000 applications for the pool of $527 million in TIGER funds this year. The Sellwood Bridge project has a $22.7 million shortfall, which county representatives hope to close completely with a TIGER grant.

If the bridge doesn’t get TIGER money, however, there are other options for the project. The project’s two “Plan B” options include postponing project elements or building an “interim interchange” that costs less money, but does not address traffic issues, Pullen said.

Demolition and preparation work on the bridge project has already begun, and the county expects to start in-water work during a fish window in December.

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The Portland Housing Bureau will manage $11 million in grants and loans that will be available for developers of rental affordable housing, .

The notice combines local and national funds that the housing bureau manages, including tax-increment financing from the Interstate Urban Renewal Area in Portland and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development‘s Community Development Block Grant and HOME programs.

“We’re prioritizing projects that serve people of moderate to low income,” said bureau spokeswoman Maileen Hamto.

The amount of 60 percent median family income — or $33,200 for a family of four — will be on the high end of the target for people to be housed in these developments, she said.

Another priority for the project will be green building techniques, Hamto said. is part of the notice that was issued.

This is the second year the housing bureau has issued a fall notice of this kind, Hamto said. Last year, the bureau had $7.9 million for these projects and received 10 proposals. Five projects were awarded funds, totaling $3.8 million, from the Lents Urban Renewal Area and HOME program.

Proposals are due Dec. 19.

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The Oregon State Housing Council approved last Friday $40 million in tax credits, grants and loans to be shelled out to 24 projects throughout the state.

The funds will go toward 810 low-income housing units, 166 of them in Portland.

The $40 million number is nice, but really, it’s a rounded number made up of a bewildering combination of funding sources.

The lion’s share of that comes from federal and state affordable housing tax credit programs.

Broken down, $17.27 million comes from grants and other direct sources of money, and $22.51 million is in the form of tax credits.

The 810 units will be a mixture of rehabilitated, reclaimed property and new construction and will run the gamut of affordable hosing options: from Section 8 housing, to housing specifically for seniors and housing for the homeless.

Check out this of the funding sources and the of projects.

Photo by via Flickr

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Thanks in part to a $20,000 grant from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, 15 young women will begin construction jobs next week.

Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. is coordinating the third annual , a seven-week program that provides paid, on-the-job training to young women. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, through its Community Fund, have supported OTI’s educational efforts since 2001.

The all-female crew, age 17 to 24, will build a split-rail fence at Fort Vancouver in Washington, a fence at North by Northeast Community Health Center on Northeast Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and a compost bin for a community garden on Northeast Emerson Street.

“For many of these girls, this will be their first paid work experience,” said Connie Ashbrook, OTI executive director. “They’ll be fully accountable for actually earning a paycheck and putting in a day’s work. And they’ll receive guidance if their work ethic is not what it should be in a very fun and supportive learning environment.”

The outcome, Ashbrook hopes, will be future careers in construction. One participant from last year’s program is now in OTI’s pre-apprenticeship program for adult women training to be a carpenter.

“She’s going to be a really dynamite worker for someone,” Ashbrook said.

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