Complex sentence: Voters approved funding for the project, but Gresham officials and businesses rejected the project, until they pushed for a slight routing change, and the 15 mile (24 km) route started construction in 1981, and the line opened in September 1986.
Split into simpler sentences: Voters approved funding for the project, but Gresham officials and businesses rejected the project until a slight routing change was agreed to. The 15 mile (24 km) route started construction in 1981 and opened in September 1986.