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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2017
State looks at seven scenarios
for imposing Portland toll road
Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review
A man fishes for salmon in the Snake River above the
Lower Granite Dam in Washington state in 2016.
Feds narrow options
for dams and salmon
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest Public Radio
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
The Oregon Department
of Transportation will conduct
modeling of seven tolling sce-
narios along Interstates 5 and
205 to see how the variations
would affect traffic and nearby
neighborhoods in the Portland
metro area in the next 10 years.
The work is the next step for
a regional committee charged
with coming up with recom-
mendations for how to toll Port-
land-area freeways. The com-
mittee’s goal is to offer a plan
that would help manage vehicle
bottlenecks and raise funds for
congestion-busting projects.
A $5.3 billion transporta-
tion-funding package, passed
earlier this year, required the
Oregon Transportation Com-
mission to consider tolling in
the Portland metro area. It is not
required to implement tolling.
The committee is sched-
uled to submit recommen-
dations by June to the com-
mission. The decision on a
tolling scheme rests with the
commission.
It’s unlikely that the toll-
ing methods would be uniform
along the two interstates, as
segments of the freeways have
Pamplin Media Group
The Oregon Department of Transportation will conduct
modeling of seven tolling scenarios along Interstates 5
and 205 to see how the variations would affect traffic and
nearby neighborhoods in the Portland metro area in the
next 10 years.
different geographic obstacles,
said David Ungemah, a con-
sultant with New York-based
transportation engineering and
management firm WSP USA.
Options include tolling all
lanes of the freeways; tolling an
existing lane, possibly in seg-
ments; or adding a new toll lane,
Ungemah said.
The tolls could be priced
at set amounts or dynamically
according to congestion or time
of day.
The seven scenarios to be
modeled are:
• Both interstates would
be tolled on all lanes in both
directions;
• Both interstates would
have one existing lane in each
direction converted to a toll
lane;
• Both interstates would
have an additional toll lane
constructed in each direction;
• I-5 would have no toll
lanes and I-205 would have
one toll lane constructed in
each direction;
• I-5 would be tolled on
every lane in both directions;
no tolls on I-205;
• I-5 would have one exist-
ing lane in both directions
converted to a toll lane; I-205
would have all lanes in both
directions tolled;
• I-5 would have one exist-
ing lane in both directions
converted to a toll lane; I-205
would have an additional lane
constructed in both directions
to toll.
The Department of Trans-
portation also will analyze how
traffic would change on the
interstates in the next 10 years
if no tolls are imposed.
The modeling would reflect
road improvements planned in
the next decade.
None of the scenarios are
formal proposals, Ungemah
said.
Members of the committee
and the transportation commis-
sion intend to hold several pub-
lic hearings before deciding on
a final plan.
The commission also
would determine toll rates and
exemptions. Toll booths would
not be used to charge drivers.
Instead, the agency would use
transponders to register a toll
charge and license-plate iden-
tification to send bills to driv-
ers without transponders, said
Travis Brouwer, ODOT assis-
tant director.
“Most systems read license
plates for vehicles without
transponders and send a bill in
the mail,” Brouwer said.
“That’s how Washington’s
system works.”
Expires 12/15/17
Federal agencies are a
step closer to deciding how
best to manage the Colum-
bia River system and pro-
tect endangered fish. They
outlined goals for a range
of plans at a public meeting
Thursday.
A series of public meet-
ings this past year gave the
agencies plenty to think
about. They received more
than 400,000 comments about
how to protect endangered
salmon and steelhead and, at
the same time, maintain navi-
gation channels for river traf-
fic, control floods, and meet
hydropower demands.
The agencies have nar-
rowed down their options
to 230 possible ideas that
could help solve problems
in the dam system — from
warm waters that kill fish to
droughts that shrink irriga-
tion supplies.
“If you try to meet all of
our objectives, what’s the
right balance for that? We
want to be able to show the
trade-offs,” Rebecca Weiss
with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers said.
One controversial option
that the agencies have so far
left on the table is the breach-
ing four dams on the lower
Snake River — something
that is supported by fish and
conservation groups.
At the meeting, people
wondered:
• Is the government
considering how increas-
ing amounts of renewable
energy affects the grid? (Yes,
they’ll look at what the dif-
ferent plans could mean for
renewable energy devel-
opment — but this may be
more of an indirect question
they ask.)
• Are they going to con-
sider how removing the
lower Snake River dams
could increase salmon num-
bers and help imperiled
Southern Resident Killer
Whales? (Yes, but they are
working on how to answer
both systemwide questions
and more localized issues.
And this may be more of a
local problem.)
• Will the plan take into
account how changing pre-
cipitation — from drought
or climate change — could
affect irrigation supplies?
(Yes, irrigation is one of the
main reasons the federal
agencies operate the dams.)
Traffic impact
measured over
next 10 years
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