Your Homework is Late... But You Get an "A"...

ODOT, on a tight timeline, puts the OTC on a tighter one... and everybody fails...

ODOT is rapidly running out of money. So much so that they will not have enough to complete the I-205 tolling projects let alone consider starting the the Rose Quarter project.

In a meeting this past week, the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) was presented a new Urban Mobility Strategy Finance Plan (UMS) that revised toll project priorities and ODOT’s budget based on a lack of tolling dollars. FYI, they were banking on tolling money to fund the projects. Reminds us of a gangster that tells his boss he will have the money and then the marks that he is gonna shake down decide they have had enough and will not give in… well kinda…

The OTC raised concerns with the new budget, which leaves $15 million in reserve, and made it seem that they may not approve it. But the meeting had been scheduled for at least a month and “Review the draft Urban Mobility Strategy Finance Plan for submittal to Governor Kotek by July 1 and approve any modifications or adjustments” was literally on the agenda… so they had to pass it, right?

For more on this, listen to this week’s podcast.

In Short

Article 1A - The OTC had a special meeting, this past Week, in order to look over and approve a new UMS. We have included the link to the meeting (it gets started at 29min) and also (1B) the Power Point presentation so you can give it a good look-over.

The Governor wanted this by July 1st in order to make decisions about tolling projects and ODOT funding… we assume. Based on how this meeting played out it is easy to get complacent about what may or may not happen. The UMS got submitted to the OTC and the Regional Toll Advisory Committee just 36hrs earlier. The OTC had serious issues with the plan but passed it anyway. And ODOT and the OTC… failed us!

Article 2 - In what has to be an Ah Ha moment, ODOT is getting some serious eyeballs on their spending habits. $100 million spent on the Rose Quarter and not even a kicked pebble, almost a 100% cost increase for the Abernethy Bridge replacement and they are only half-way thru… and many areas of wasted revenue.

Koin pulls voices together and trys to make sense of it all. Do note, ODOT’s Travis Brouwer states that ODOT does not have a component to pay for these big projects without tolling.

Cue the violins and let the audits begin…

Weekly Articles

1A Oregon Transportation Commission meeting

1B Power Point for OTC meeting

Koin TV looks at ODOT's spending

KGW looks at the proposed changes to projects