Wilsonville Spokesman Online

Connector's Alternative 7 moves forward in process

JPACT vote is good news for Wilsonville

• Published: 12/16/2009 7:00:00 AM

Officially the Highway 99W-I-5 connector isn’t a connector anymore.

Consensus wasn’t reached last week, but a transportation plan surrounding how to move traffic from the highway to the freeway is moving forward.

The good news for city of Wilsonville officials is that language has been recommended to  the regional transportation plan which, “recognize(s) the intent to spread the traffic demand across this network of arterials that are phased in to ensure no single arterial functions as the de facto through traffic ‘connector’…”

Wilsonville city officials have long worried than any connection between Sherwood and Wilsonville would have negative impacts on I-5 and the Elligsen Road interchange. Meanwhile Washington County officials maintain that creating the connections will alleviate traffic on Tualatin-Sherwood Road and up Highway 99W into Portland.

Before the vote Thursday morning by a Metro committee to move the Regional Transportation Plan to the Metro Council, a continuing debate led two top officials to vote against the plan.

Washington County Commissioner Roy Rogers and Tigard Mayor Craig Dirksen, representing Washington County cities, voted against the new RTP language and the overall recommendation to the Metro council.

Rogers and Dirksen were concerned about additional language suggesting that an extensive traffic study of I-5 from Portland to the Willamette River be done before any work could start on the new southerin route.

“In a larger context, we believe we need to look at these studies in a regional, holistic way,” Rogers said. “If we’re saying, you have to have (the I-5 and 99W studies) then we are not willing to support, obviously, the Troutdale corridor which we think is a high priority at this point.”

Rogers said a smaller study of traffic on I-5, from Tigard to the Willamette River, was needed, but he feels money spent on traffic studies should be prioritized.

Metro transportation planners said that studies, depending on their scope, can cost anywhere from $1 million to $3 million.

“They are shockingly expensive because of all the other scopes of the study,” said Pat Emmerson, a planning spokeswoman for Metro. “There are environmental pieces, land use analysis, public input aspects, really a lot goes into these studies.”

The connector is part of the larger Regional Transportation Plan, a list of approximately $20 billion in projects required for projects to receive state and federal funding.

What started as a connector highway between 99W and I-5 morphed into a three-route transportation system in Tualatin and Sherwood, connecting to the interstate, called Alternative 7. This alternative includes a provision that will connect 124th Avenue in Tualatin with ultimately the north Wilsonville interchange to facilitate freight movement and industrial growth.
 
Locals react
Wilsonville City Council president Alan Kirk, someone who has been critical of any connector proposal, said he was pleased with the recommendation from JPACT.

“I was pleased with two of the prior changes that they accepted in this recommendation,” Kirk said Friday. “One being that they required a corridor study and the second was that any purchase of right of way, I believe it was $90 million, be removed from the federally constrained list.”

According to the recommendation, the timing of the purchasing right of way to construct the southern arterial would be moved from the 2008-2017 time period to the 2018-2025 time period.

In addition, the right of way acquisition will be taken out of the federally constrained list. Projects have to be on the federally constrained list to receive federal dollars.

Kirk also said he was impressed with how city staff and specifically Mayor Tim Knapp, communicated and discussed the connector issue regionally.

The city of Wilsonville isn’t the only one happy with the JPACT recommendation.

The new language that will be included in the RTP has much of the language that regional groups had agreed with — including the chambers of Sherwood, Tualatin and Wilsonville.

“I think we are extremely pleased the southern I-5 corridor study will be a main emphasis for this region,” said Steve Gilmore, CEO of the Wilsonville Chamber. “I’m glad to see the hard work we did with our regional partners paid off.”

Clackamas County Commission Chairwoman, Lynn Peterson, who also has a seat on the Metro JPACT committee, said she’s happy with the outcome and looks forward to the Metro Council decision.
Metro is scheduled to hear the RTP during its Dec. 17 meeting in Portland.

“There are a lot of issues we worked out for the past three years,” Peterson said.

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