Work has begun on an approximately $215 million project to extend TriMet‘s MAX Red Line into Hillsboro and improve service across the light-rail system.

Currently, the Red Line runs from Portland International Airport to the Beaverton Transit Center. Crews will extend the Red Line westward to 10 new stations.

TriMet’s plan also calls for a number of system upgrades intended to reduce congestion and boost reliability. These include:

• constructing a second set of tracks in two sections between Gateway Transit Center and the airport in order to reduce delays (currently, MAX trains sometimes must wait for one traveling the opposite direction);
• building a Gateway North station;
• renovating the airport MAX station and building a new multiuse path connecting the airport to Northeast 82nd Avenue;
• building two new bridges – one over Interstate 84 to connect to the new Gateway North station and another to the north to provide access to Gateway Green; and
• upgrading tracks, switches and signals in order to expand service in Washington County.

MAX trains in Washington County were often crowded at peak times before the pandemic began, according to TriMet. The expansion will help people who struggle to find affordable housing near workplaces, shopping centers and medical services, officials stated.

“To Washington County, the Red Line expansion is more than an investment in transportation,” Washington County Commissioner Nafisa Fai stated in a news release. “It’s an investment in creating safer, healthier and more livable connected communities.”

The project – called “A Better Red” – is being paid for in part via a $99.9 million Federal Transit Administration construction grant that was announced on Sept. 24.

Stacy and Witbeck, a longtime contractor for TriMet projects, is the contractor for the Red Line extension. Stacy and Witbeck in 2019 was awarded the construction manager/general contractor role, including $508,000 for preconstruction services.

At the time, TriMet forecasted that the project would increase ridership by about 5,000 daily trips. Increased revenue was expected to cover 30 percent to 50 percent of higher operation costs.

Completion is expected in 2024.

More modest improvements are coming to the Lloyd District. TriMet will rebuild a section of track slightly east of the Lloyd Center/Northeast 11th Ave MAX station beginning Sunday. Disruptions are expected through Oct. 23.

TriMet is also awaiting word on federal funding for the Southwest Corridor light-rail construction project. The extension to Tigard and Tualatin has been on the shelf since Metro voters in November 2020 rejected a multibillion-dollar bond package that would have paid for the rail extension and other projects.

Meanwhile, the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill has passed the U.S. Senate and is now before the House. Dollars from that bill could potentially be allocated to the Southwest Corridor project. A TriMet spokeswoman declined an interview request.

“It is a bit too early for us to comment as the bill continues to evolve,” Roberta Altstadt stated in an email.

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Bidding is now open for subcontractors interested in performing work on the Gideon overcrossing project in Southeast Portland.

TriMet and the Portland Bureau of Transportation expect ground to be broken this spring on a new bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists across both railroad tracks and light-rail tracks. Stacy and Witbeck is the general contractor for the structure, which will stretch from Southeast 14th Avenue south to the intersection of Southeast 13th Place and Gideon Street.

Stacy and Witbeck is preparing to start work, and looking for firms to tackle: reinforcing steel; steel erection; carpentry; membrane roofing; sheet metal; doors and hardware; storefront/glazing; painting; mechanical; electrical; drilled shaft foundations; paving and landscaping.

All bids must be submitted no later than 2 p.m. on April 9. Prospective bidders can learn more by contacting Mark Bodyfelt at 503-231-5300 or mbodyfelt@stacywitbeck.com.

Construction will take about a year, according to TriMet, and cost approximately $15 million.

To find information on this project, or others like it, join the 91��Ƶ Project Center. It’s a searchable and trackable database of thousands of construction projects in the Pacific Northwest. Discover projects ranging from civil transportation work to private multifamily housing, and gain access to all the contact information and project documents you will need to bid on the project. Sign up for a free trial today by contacting Sharlene Richard at 503-802-7252 or SRichard@djcOregon.com.

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TriMet and the Portland Bureau of Transportation expect to break ground in Southeast Portland this spring on a new bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Stacy and Witbeck will serve as general contractor for the Gideon overcrossing, which is designed to span both Union Pacific Railroad tracks and MAX light-rail tracks from Southeast 14th Avenue south to the intersection of Southeast 13th Place and Gideon Street. The bridge will replace an old, non-ADA-compliant crossing near Southeast 16th Avenue and Gideon Street that was removed in 2013 as part of MAX Orange Line construction.

Delays in federal funding led to a change in original plans to build the overpass as part of the Orange Line project. But when the latter was completed under budget, TriMet gained approval to use the savings to construct the overpass.

The structure will be built entirely in existing public right-of-way, about 300 feet east of the Clinton Street MAX station.

Construction will take about a year, according to TriMet, and cost approximately $15 million. When completed, the bridge will be owned, operated and maintained by the city of Portland.

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Faye Burch was working as the senior policy analyst for former Gov. Barbara Roberts and interacting with the state’s workers compensation, insurance and finance systems when she gained a greater understanding of some of the challenges small businesses face. She became an advocate and established her consulting firm, F M Burch and Associates, Inc., to help companies craft equity plans and execute them in the public and private sectors.

One of her first projects was to increase diversity in the team working on TriMet‘s Interstate MAX line. She was involved in several subsequent TriMet projects and, on the Portland-Milwaukie Orange Line, helped ensure that more than $100 million worth of work was awarded to minority subcontractors.

“I think we made major differences in building businesses and developing skills, moving them from mom and pop to training agents, perfecting their skills and establishing profits,” she said of the Interstate MAX project. “That led to many DBEs successfully participating in many of the light-rail projects.”

Burch noted that because of their involvement in such large projects, the subcontractors were able to buy homes, invest in their businesses’ infrastructure and contribute financially to projects that made their communities stronger, such as the Billy Webb Elks Lodge in Northeast Portland.

She credited general contractor Stacy and Witbeck and individuals such as Bruce Watts, Leanne Owens, Johnell Bell and Monika Johnson with creating a partnership that was “an extraordinary experience underscored with the realization that together we made a difference.”

Burch volunteers with MESO Microenterprise Services of Oregon, a program that provides SBA lending and business services to smaller companies. It served 500 people in 2017, and recently bought commercial property to build affordable housing and a permanent facility. In addition, Burch is a co-founder of several business and trade associations designed to support MBE/WBE businesses including Professional Business Development Group.

Prosper Portland noted that her political career was influenced by her parents, Fay Gordly and Beatrice Coleman Gordly, as well as her college activism at the University of Oregon and early involvement in the NAACP and the Urban League of Portland.

Burch began her political career with former Sen. Margaret Carter, the first African-American woman elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. She also assisted Sen. Bill McCoy, the first African-American to serve in the Oregon Legislature, with the establishment of the Oregon Minority Women Emerging Small Business Program, according to Prosper Portland.

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Upgrades in materials and components should allow light-rail tracks near Providence Park to serve for up to 30 more years before needing additional overhauls.

The previous time repairs were made to the complex system of mechanical switches and sections of track around the stadium was the mid-1990s, according to TriMet project manager David Sauter.

“That’s pretty good considering we’re getting double the trains and it was last done roughly 25 years ago,” Sauter said Wednesday morning as he surveyed the job site along Southeast 18th Avenue in front of Providence Park’s east end.

There, general contractor Stacy and Witbeck is starting to replace MAX track switches and sections of rail. In addition, upgrades will be made to the track bed and drainage for the mechanical switch machines under the tracks.

Stacy and Witbeck previously worked on MAX orange-line infrastructure when it was built between downtown Portland and Milwaukie.

“We’re replacing three switches that make up a single crossover and a turnout to our special events track,” Sauter said. “The single crossover allows our trains to go from eastbound to westbound track, and the reason this is important is because often we need to juggle trains around the system, moving trains over from eastbound to westbound, or over to add service or rescue trains that have become stranded for maintenance issues.”

Finally, new rubberized devices known as boots will be installed next to the rails along this stretch to reduce concrete chipping, or spalling, as well as keep potholes from forming. To secure the rails in place, an elastomeric grout will be used; it’s also expected to impact energy dissipation and electrical isolation.

Such tools did not exist 25 years ago, which led to the steel rails being permanently affixed to the asphalt at that time. Over the years, vibrations through the rails have displaced them slightly, though usually only a millimeter or two. But that can nevertheless have a noticeable impact, according to Sauter.

“Back then, things were done a little differently than they are today,” he said. “Just a few millimeters of movement in the rail translates to quite a bit of sway in the train. So that’s one issue and one reason why this is a priority.”

When it comes to drainage, another outdated ’90s technique is being addressed. At that time, it was common to construct drainage systems featuring pipes that gradually became larger as they moved from storm drains to the wastewater system.

“This leads to problems because the pipes are grouted in together and the connections get frayed,” Sauter said. “Pressurizing them to clean them, you actually get blowback, and we actually can’t get good pressure on the pipes.”

So, a single-diameter drainage pipe will be installed through the length of Southwest 18th Avenue being upgraded.

Taken together, the poor drainage and degraded asphalt also led to false alerts in localized sensors that signal trains’ presence. But with better drainage and tracks, such malfunctions should be a thing of the past, Sauter said.

The project notably will disrupt service of blue- and red-line trains from May 6 through May 11. Some downtown streets and crosswalks have been closed since April 30 in anticipation of this work.

Also, orange-line service will be limited during commuting hours, according to TriMet, but disruptions overall are not expected to be as severe as previous ones in the area.

According to TriMet, automobile detours, shuttle buses and free bike rides on Biketown will be offered until MAX service is fully restored.

“During the project we will only have blue-line trains running on the west side between Hillsboro and Goose Hollow,” TriMet spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt said. “That means folks in that area will have fewer trains. But we are encouraging riders on the west side and anyone going through the disrupted area to plan an extra 30 minutes to their trips.”

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The length of the stairs leading up to a new TriMet pedestrian bridge in Southeast Portland ultimately helped shape its design.

Initial plans for the $3.9 million Lafayette Street pedestrian and bicyclist crossing over railroad tracks to provide access to the future Rhine Street/Southeast 17th Avenue orange line light-rail station called for a taller bridge than the one being built. But the set of stairs up to it would have to zigzag with obstructed landings that could potentially attract crime, said Christopher Pitt, a structural engineer with KPFF Consulting Engineers. This concerned TriMet officials working together with KPFF on the bridge design, he said.

“They care a lot about security and safety (and) looking at sightlines,” he said. “That’s something that TriMet focuses on a lot in the design process.”

Pitt and other KPFF staffers proposed an alternative. Instead of a precast concrete girder bridge, a truss bridge with a lower deck could be accessed via a shorter, straight set of stairs.

“We started looking at alternatives and we thought a steel truss would just bring it as low as possible,” Pitt said. “With steel truss, you can put the walking surface to the bottom of the structure. That shortened the stair length. We can have pretty much straight stair runs. You’ll see where you’re going the whole time.”

Lorentz Bruun Construction crews this past fall started building the 184-foot-long steel truss bridge. Last week, a project milestone was reached when crews used a crane to lower in place the approximately 50-ton span onto two 47-foot-tall steel-framed elevator towers that double as bridge supports on either end of the railroad tracks.

The new Lafayette Street crossing will fill the void left after demolition this past summer of a deteriorating span built in the 1940s to provide access over Union Pacific Railroad tracks. That bridge, owned by Union Pacific, was “functionally obsolete,” Pitt said.

Union Pacific and TriMet are sharing the cost of the replacement project. TriMet will own and maintain the new bridge, which will cross between Southeast Rhine and Lafayette streets to line up with a signaled crosswalk leading to the new MAX orange line station.

The project is part of TriMet’s larger $1.49 billion effort to create the 7.3-mile Portland-to-Milwaukie orange line, which is slated to open in September 2015. The project includes $65 million in improvements to maximize access by pedestrians and bicyclists to light-rail stations.

Besides a shorter stair length, project engineers concluded that a steel truss bridge would have other advantages over a concrete girder span, said Leah Robbins, TriMet civil engineer and east segment director for the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Transit Project. A truss structure fit better into the tight space available for the bridge, and that type of span was easier to transport and install with minimal impacts on the active rail lines below, she said.

Safe passage across the bridge for both pedestrians and bicyclists was the top consideration in the design, Robbins said. The bridge will have clear glass elevator cabs for added visibility, closed-circuit cameras and ample lighting. The design team also reviewed bridge plans with TriMet security officials.

“It was (a) struggle to get the precise alignment of the stairway, elevator access and the span direction so there was good visibility for pedestrians at all levels … so they’re not entering an unanticipated area,” Robbins said.

Bicyclists will be better served by the new bridge than the old one, Pitt said. The deck width will be 12 feet – twice the width of its predecessor. Also, the bridge stair width will be 8 feet – up from 2 feet – and have tire gutters for walking bicycles up and down. The elevators will be larger to accommodate bicycles with trailers and have doors on either side so bicyclists won’t have to turn around or back out to exit.

Both the bridge and the elevator towers are being built primarily with raw steel that will weather over time to gain a deep rust color, Pitt said. This weathering will form a protective layer around the steel, eliminating the expense of paint and paying homage to the industrial setting, he said.

“When you can make (weathering steel) work, it’s very economical,” he said. “It kind of has a nice aesthetic to it.”

The new bridge is close to Pitt’s home, and he said he’s looking forward to visiting the crossing when it’s complete next summer. It won’t be part of his regular bike commute, but will come in handy if a train happens to go by.

“I’m certainly going to go down there and take my daughter,” Pitt said. “This way you can get across whether or not there’s a train.”

Lafayette Street pedestrian bridge

Location: near Southeast 17th Avenue/Rhine Street station for future MAX orange line

Cost: $3.9 million

Construction start date: October 2014

Anticipated completion date: summer 2015

Owner: TriMet

Architect: Merryman Barnes Architects

Design engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers

Mechanical engineer: Interface Engineering

Electrical engineer: LTK Engineering Services

General contractor: Stacy and Witbeck Inc.

Subcontractor: Lorentz Bruun Construction

Steel fabricator: Fought & Co.

Bridge truss erector: REFA Erection Inc.

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TriMet awarded $170 million in contracts to minority-owned firms, women-owned firms or disadvantaged business enterprises for the Portland-Milwaukie light-rail project.

That sum is the most the transit agency has spent to hire MWDBE firms since starting a program 14 years ago to increase the number of construction contracts it awards such firms, said Johnell Bell, TriMet’s director of diversity and transit equity.

Previously, TriMet awarded $62 million in contracts to minority-owned, women-owned or DBE firms for construction of the MAX green line, and $36 million for construction of the MAX yellow line.

Of the 538 firms hired to work on the $1.49 billion MAX orange line between Portland and Milwaukie, 130 are owned by minorities or women, or are DBEs.

“One of the things we’re really proud of is it’s not just a handful of firms,” Bell said. “A lot of this work is just having the exposure and the opportunity.”

The MWDBE firms represent 25 percent of all contracted firms working on the project, which is scheduled to finish next year. That exceeded TriMet’s goal of 22 percent, Bell said. The agency set no specific goal for hiring MWDBE architecture and engineering firms; however, 20 percent of the design firms working on the project are certified, he said.

The large percentage of MWDBE participation for the orange line project has garnered attention from the Federal Transit Administration, one of the project funders, Bell said.

“We’re one of the top (agencies) in the nation in terms of hitting DBE goals,” he said.

TriMet officials last week recognized an individual and a firm involved in the orange line project for helping advance the agency’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program goals. The 2014 DBE Champion of the Year individual award went to Hoffman Construction project manager Daryle Low. The organization award went to prime contractor Stacy and Witbeck.

To date, the orange line project has created 12,800 jobs, according to TriMet.

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