The Interstate 5 bridge from the Washington side as seen April 2018.
Clark County commuters into Portland won’t be hit with tolls at the border if a plan being considered by an advisory committee comes to fruition, but the possibility of so-called value pricing on metro-area interstates is still on the table.
The Portland Metro Area Value Pricing Advisory Committee convened for the fifth of six meetings May 14 to discuss recommendations made by engineering firm WSP regarding tolling along Interstate 5 and Interstate 205. Out of five possible tolling schemes the one being eyed by the firm and the committee for first implementation wouldn’t have tolled lanes at the state line as is allowed in legislation passed by Oregon lawmakers in 2017.
Chris Swenson of WSP went over the five concepts during the meeting. It was Concept B, tolling all lanes on Interstate 5 between Northeast Goings Street and Multnomah Boulevard, that stood out as having clear impacts on congestion while being relatively inexpensive to implement.
Swenson said that alongside good congestion relief, the diversion of traffic would actually come from I-205 to I-5, not the other way around as one might expect. He explained that shift was likely due to the increased efficiency of the tolled road making it a more desirable alternative.
Later in the meeting fellow WSP consultant David Ungemah further explained how that diversion would occur. A lot of destination pairs modeled in WSP’s work were actually quicker using I-205 than I-5 under current conditions even though the the trip would be 12-15 miles longer.
“When you take out some of the congestion in I-5, then all of a sudden that mileage increase to take for that pair really comes into focus,” Ungemah said.
Concept B also benefited from an already dense network of transit and multi-modal facilities in the tolling area, making mitigation easier than other proposals. In terms of tolling costs, Swenson said the average peak morning toll would be $2.02 with an afternoon rate of $1.55.
Of the other concepts, it was WSP’s recommendation that the committee not look at Concept A, which outside of tolling the entirety of the interstates in the project area, would impact Clark County motorists the most. That concept would toll a single northbound high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane and one southbound general purpose lane on Interstate 5 from Northeast Going Street north to Northeast Marine Drive.
Swensen explained that Concept A offered minimal congestion reduction that was localized to the immediate area. Though the proposal would let two lanes in both directions remain free, it would lead to the highest rates for the lanes that were tolled, about $5 per vehicle, per trip, during peak morning times and around $3.60 to $3.70 during peak afternoon hours.
Of the other three proposals, Concept D was also recommended not to move forward. It would put a toll on planned additional lanes on I-205 from Oregon Route 99 East to Stafford Road, including widening of the Abernethy Bridge.
Results from that model were similar to Concept A as both led to localized congestion mitigation with a relatively high per-vehicle toll. Both proposals would bring in $20 million annually, far lower than the $50 million annual gross revenue from Concept B.
The remaining proposals were the largest and smallest in scope. Concept E would exclusively toll the Abernathy Bridge and would have a different aim than the others, as Ungemah explained its goal was “system completion” using tolled funds, not specifically congestion relief. The proposal is being considered for implementation alongside Concept B.
Concept C would see the entire area allowed by legislation tolled — from the Washington-Oregon state line on both interstates to their southern junction near Tualatin. Although the concept is
not being readily considered for first implementation, Ungemah explained that by doing a proposal like Concept B first, eventually the whole system could see tolling following its success.
“Concept C isn’t necessarily being discarded,” Ungemah said, adding that “not yet” was the phrase he would use regarding the proposal. Swenson explained that it would have the most congestion relief “by far” while bringing in $300 million annually.
Ungemah explained that all concepts were built on a baseline that assumed no value pricing though did take into account all current or future projects to be constructed through 2027. That mattered from a modeling perspective, noting that much of what he was asked about had to do with existing infrastructure, not what would be in place in a decade.
WSP’s recommendations also included direction to develop mitigation strategies for low-income and adjacent communities. Anne McEnerny-Ogle, mayor of Vancouver and one of only three Washington members on the 25-member committee, stressed that the consideration be expanded to keep in mind those on the north bank of the Columbia.
Both McEnerny-Ogle and committee member Eileen Quiring, a Clark County councilor, approved of the dropping of Concept A which had the potential for the most impacts to Washington commuters. Quiring had also asked for reprieve for Washingtonians, mentioning some sort of financial mitigation for commuters.
The committee has one meeting left, scheduled for June 25 where a formal recommendation will be made to advise the Oregon Transportation Commission. It will be the commission’s recommendations that will make their way to the Federal Highway Administration by December 2018.
