Here's the resolution.

Renovation to VMC submitted for Historic Resource Review (via Portland Maps.)

...continues at OPB.

...continues at the Portland Business Journal ($).

...continues at KGW.

"The group plans to convert the aging building into 1,000 affordable housing units, an education hub, communal green spaces and mixed-use commercial opportunities, with the goal that the Albina neighborhood would be a riverfront destination for Oregonians to live, work and play."

Just bad phrasing, right? Or is there really a plan to reuse the existing building?

Unless there's a huge change I haven't heard about, it's a mistake in the article.

...continues at the Oregonian.

Wow, that's a wild amount of money.

So great to see this moving forward.

While I think this Rose Quarter expansion is a waste of money that isn't gonna fix anything because the bottleneck will still exist, I am happy to see the Feds giving money for the buildable caps since that was always something in danger of getting cut with this project. Caps over the freeway will help fix the scar this freeway has left on this area and will help it heal and become an urban district again.

Isn't it fixing the lane drop? That is the biggest bottleneck issue I experience when I drive this way.

I forget what exactly they are doing, it's been a while since I looked in detail.

It doesn't fix the lane drop, it just connects the off ramps from 84 to 405. Heading into the area from the north will still drop down to two lanes. What will be different is people driving on 405 to 84 and vice versa won't have to merge to make that transaction. So it will help with that, but even ODOT has said that it won't actually improve travel times during rush hours, nor will it improve the accidents rate because the majority of the accidents happen outside of rush hours when people drive faster through the area.

I would rather see two billion invested into transit and expanding the MAX and building at least one tunnel through downtown (even better would be to have it tunnel under Hillsdale and Multnomah Village.) But since this Rose Quarter freeway expansion is going to happen, I am happy to see that the buildable caps will be a part of the expansion and that Albina Neighborhood will have a real shot of return as hopefully a very dense and diverse district.

Did ODOT say it wouldn't decrease accident rates?

I drive the 84 to 405 exit to the Fremont and reverese commute 2 to 4 times a week. The wild merging between 84 and 5N with the Moda/OCC exit in such a tiny amount of roadway and is incredibly dangerous. I've seen more than my share of bumpers bumping and close calls over the years. The reverse is a little easier to navigate but there is still a strangle when it drops to two lanes next to the Moda and then an exit only lane to 84 appears shortly thereafter creating another stretch of dangerous vehicle crossings in a constrained amount of space before the lanes break off to the exit. Would think smoothing this out would greatly decrease the number of accidents.

WW, as always, has the story. TL;DR: No recent fatalities from vehicle-on-vehicle collisions (through 2017); lots of fender benders.

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2017...ut-that-claim/

FWIW, ODOT could probably cap the freeway with the $450mil and include an auxilary lane on each side if they were willing to settle for three lanes with fairly typical shoulders. That would be about a 45'- 48' roadway width for each side, only 7' -10' wider than the current roadways. They'll get that width just by making the sloped embankments vertical, which they'll have to do anyway. Problem is ODOT really wants 55' roadways which can be restriped to four lanes in the future. That extra 10' on each side adds a lot of cost.

Credit to Joe Cortright (who exaggerates a little bit, as always): https://cityobservatory.org/rq_hidin...%20feet%20wide.

I agree with that assessment.

Stupid fender benders because of poor roadway design cause increased costs to insurance providers and ultimately their policy holders, aka us. The frequent bumping instead of fatalities is due to the traffic traveling slow in a very congested area. Ultimately it still leads to a ton of delay for those traveling the freeways. More congestion, more pollution, more time sitting in cars, trucks and delayed freight instead of being productive.

Wow that City Observatory link, such vitriol. Tell us how you really think....

...continues at the Oregonian.

Would also be great to see a night life area form next to the Moda Center from this development.

I would love to see the Rose Quarter/Albina District image become reality. It would be amazing seeing a residential skyline develop in that area and have the whole area feel like an urban extension of downtown.