On Friday, January 24, Multnomah County and state leaders will hold a press availability for news outlets to see firsthand the growing maintenance issues County road crews face, as elected leaders call on the Oregon Legislature to sustainably fund transportation statewide.
Who:
- Oregon Senator Chris Gorsek, D-Gresham
- Multnomah County Commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon, District 4
- Multnomah County Road Maintenance Supervisor Ken Bossen
When: Friday, January 24
Where: 105 SE Pounder Road, Corbett
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. interviews start promptly at 1:30
Visuals: Following interviews with Sen. Gorsek and Commissioner Jones-Dixon, Ken Bossen will take news outlets on a visual tour of some of the County's roads in poor condition, showing the work crews have been able to do with limited funding.
Please RSVP to: pressoffice@multco.us
Call to action
Multnomah County residents depend on the County to maintain the roads that allow them to reach their homes, operate their businesses and recreate. The Oregon Legislature must take action this legislative session to sustainably fund roads and bridges to fix the budget shortfalls that Multnomah County and other Oregon counties have faced for decades.
Multnomah County estimates it would take an additional $65 million per year for 10 years to bring all of its roads up to standard. This additional funding would help replace and repair most County roads and bridges in east County like the Stark Street Bridge and prevent future extended closures. Any time the County can fully repair a road, taxpayers save millions of dollars on future spot repairs. For example, Multnomah County used $5.1 million to overlay and repair seven miles of Larch Mountain Road. That investment meant the County won’t have to send maintenance out for spot repairs for decades.
The need is great, but even a small amount of funding can help. Leveraging state and federal grants will improve safety - particularly in urban east Multnomah County where the County maintains 30 miles of high volume roads with sidewalks, bike lanes, signals and ramps. On N.E. 238th Drive in Wood Village, the County was able to secure state and federal funds to fully rebuild the road. In 2021, the project installed a retaining wall, added a bike lane and a pedestrian path and improved drainage so that the road is both safer and less likely to have flooding and freezing issues in winter. This frees up our road maintenance crews to work on other issues during winter storms.
What County crews face daily
County Road Maintenance does the best it can to keep roads maintained until they need to be replaced. Once a road deteriorates to a certain point, performing repairs no longer extends the life of the road. It only makes it temporarily drivable. The only way to fix the roads at that point is replacement. Replacing a rural road can cost $3.5 - $4 million per mile. Maintenance crews are spending a lot of time responding to road failures with bandaid fixes, only to have the same issues, like potholes, pop up over and over again. This can be vexing for crews, but is especially frustrating for residents.
Multnomah County maintains 269 miles of roads. For information, visit: https://www.multco.us/roads.