**South Corridor I-205 / Portland Mall LRT**

**Portland, Oregon**

(November 2007)

The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District (TriMet) and
Portland Metro, the region's metropolitan planning organization, are
constructing 8.3 miles of new light rail transit (LRT) consisting of two
segments connecting to the existing "MAX" LRT system along Interstate 84
(I-84). The South Corridor Light Rail Extension Project or South
Corridor Extension will provide a new rail line, "the Green Line," from
Clackamas Town Center to Portland State University (PSU). A portion of
the Green Line will merge with and share 6.2 miles of the existing Blue
Line. The Interstate-205 (I-205) portion will extend within the
interstate right-of-way, from Gateway Transit Center to a new rail
transit center at the Clackamas Town Center. The Portland Mall portion
will extend from Union Station to PSU along the North-South Transit
Mall. The I-205 alignment is 6.5 miles double-tracked and at-grade with
several grade-separated roadway crossings. This section will include
approximately 2,100 park-and-ride spaces. The project includes eight
bi-directional stations for the I-205 segment and 14 unidirectional
stations along the downtown Portland Mall alignment, with seven on each
leg of the one-way loop. TriMet will buy 24 light rail vehicles to
operate the project. The project is expected to serve 46,500 average
weekday boardings by 2025.

The total project cost under the FFGA is \$575.70 million. The Section
5309 New Starts funding share is \$345.40 million.

**Status**

The South/North Major Investment Study covering the travel shed that
connects the cities of Oregon City and Milwaukie, the Clackamas Regional
Center area, downtown, north, and southeast Portland, and the city of
Vancouver, Washington, was initiated in 1993 and completed in 1995. In
1998, Metro issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and
adopted LRT as the locally preferred alternative (LPA). Additional
elements of the South/North project included: the completed Interstate
MAX alignment between downtown Portland and Expo Center to the north; a
Supplemental EIS underway for the Milwaukie LRT alignment between
Milwaukie and downtown Portland to the south; and the Columbia River
Crossing EIS between Expo Center in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver,
Washington. The failure of a November 1998 ballot measure that would
have provided local funding for the LPA triggered the need to
re-evaluate the potential improvements, including a separate analysis of
the I-205 corridor within the southern portion of the study area. A
Supplemental Draft EIS that focused on transportation alternatives in
the I-205 corridor was completed in December 2002. In October 2003,
TriMet completed an amendment to the Supplemental Draft EIS that
examined the potential impacts of a downtown LRT alignment, an
improvement that had not been included in the previous environmental
work. A revised LPA that included the downtown alignment was approved by
FTA into preliminary engineering in March 2004. The Final EIS for the
combined project was signed by FTA on November 10, 2004 and was
published and distributed in December 2004. FTA issued the NEPA Record
of Decision on February 22, 2005. Entry into final design was approved
by FTA in October 2005. Civil construction work started on the Mall
alignment in March 2007, and on the I-205 alignment in April 2007. FTA
and TriMet entered into an FFGA in June 2007, with revenue operations
scheduled for September 2009.

SAFETEA-LU Section 3043(b)(27) authorized the South Corridor
I-205/Portland Mall LRT for final design and construction. Through FY
2007, Congress has appropriated \$80.00 million in Section 5309
New Starts funds for the project.

##### 

+-------------------------------+-----------------+--------------------+
| **Reported in Year of         |                 |                    |
| Expenditure Dollars**         |                 |                    |
+-------------------------------+-----------------+--------------------+
| **[Source of                  | **Total         | **[Appropriations  |
| Funds]{.underline}**          | Funding**       | to                 |
|                               |                 | D                  |
|                               | **[(\$million)  | ate]{.underline}** |
|                               | ]{.underline}** |                    |
+-------------------------------+-----------------+--------------------+
| **Federal:**                  | \$345.40        | \$80.00 million    |
|                               |                 | appropriated       |
| Section 5309 New Starts       | \$64.79         | through FY 2007    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| FFGA Commitment               | \$2.92          |                    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| GARVEE Bonds                  | \$23.23         |                    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| Section 5309 Bus Funds        |                 |                    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| Flexible Funds (CMAQ/STP)     |                 |                    |
+-------------------------------+-----------------+--------------------+
| **Local:**                    | \$27.91         |                    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| TriMet                        | \$39.31         |                    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| Clackamas County Development  | \$22.31         |                    |
| Agency                        |                 |                    |
|                               | \$27.71         |                    |
| Portland Development          |                 |                    |
| Commission                    | \$19.01         |                    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| City of Portland              | \$3.10          |                    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| Portland Local Improvement    |                 |                    |
| District                      |                 |                    |
|                               |                 |                    |
| Property Donation             |                 |                    |
+-------------------------------+-----------------+--------------------+
| **TOTAL**                     | **\$575.70**    |                    |
+-------------------------------+-----------------+--------------------+

**NOTE:** The sum of the figures may differ from the total as listed due
to rounding.

**MAP**