2021 Fixing Our Streets Report

Program overview

In May 2016, Portland voters demonstrated their trust in the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) when they approved Measure 26-173, a new 10-cent per gallon fuel tax for repairing streets. This was the first local funding source in the city’s history dedicated to the city’s transportation system. That same month, Portland City Council passed a Heavy Vehicle Use Tax on companies operating trucks over 13 tons. This resulted in companies paying 13% of the total fuel tax revenue directed for use on Portland’s streets.

In May 2020, Portlanders resoundingly approved Measure 26-209, a four-year renewal of Fixing Our Streets. In February 2020, Portland City Council renewed the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax. As we emerge from the many impacts of Covid-19, this investment will be more valuable than ever, bringing millions of dollars into Portland’s economy over four years. Whether it’s paving our streets, filling potholes, improving street lighting, building sidewalks, or helping our youngest Portlanders safely walk, bike, and roll to school, the Fixing Our Streets program helps Portland move forward while improving our transportation system for all.

Building on the demonstrated success of the original Fixing Our Streets program, the renewal is funding approximately $74.5 million in street repair and traffic safety projects and services. The list of projects and services includes $25 million dedicated to paving, $5 million for new traffic signals, $4.5 million for sidewalks, and $4.5 million for street lighting, and millions more for better and safer access to schools, transit, and community services for Portland’s kids, seniors, and families.

The Fixing Our Streets 2020-2024 project list was developed with clear outcomes. These are often a combination of maintenance and safety elements. Safe Routes to School sidewalk construction, for instance, is a maintenance function with clear safety benefits for Portland students and other pedestrians. Similarly, a neighborhood base repair project to prevent a road section from failing will also mean new or improved crosswalk markings as well as curb ramps that meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards, increasing accessibility. Spending from the program continues to be overseen by the Fixing Our Streets Oversight Committee, which represents multiple communities with a stake in Portland’s streets and roads.

Fixing Our Streets helps realize the safer, more mobile, and more sustainable Portland envisioned by the numerous plans and programs that direct PBOT’s work citywide, including: the Vision Zero Action Plan, PedPDX: Portland’s Citywide Pedestrian Master Plan, Safe Routes to School, area plans like Southwest in Motion and Northwest in Motion, and many more.

Guided by the city’s Racial Equity Goals, Fixing Our Streets (2020-2024) prioritizes projects that address inequities in our transportation system. This means ensuring that marginalized or underrepresented communities have greater mobility, and thus access to social and economic growth.

We also follow the city’s Climate Action Plan. We have an imperative to create safer streets that prioritize pedestrians, people biking, and people taking transit as well as more efficient streets for motor vehicles using low-carbon electricity and renewable fuels.

The new Fixing Our Streets (2020-2024) project list builds on these plans and the extensive public input that informed them. It is also shaped by feedback from neighborhood stakeholders, transportation justice advocates, and business groups. The projects represent an expansion of what made the original Fixing Our Streets so successful: a relentless focus on repairs and improvements to make it easier and safer for all Portlanders to get where they need to go.

In the City Auditor's 2019 Fixing Our Streets Audit it was recommended that the bureau track and publicly report on Fixing Our Streets projects as they relate to commitments made to the public and asking how the how project spending compares to its commitment to spend 56 percent on street repair and 44 percent on safety projects. Projects completed with Fixing Our Streets funds almost always contain elements of both safety and maintenance and therefore documenting a 56/44 percent split is unrealistic. The 2020-2024 project list did not assert this percentage split in acknowledgement of this unrealistic commitment.

Covid-19 and other impacts

The start of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with stay-at-home orders in Oregon, led to a dramatic decline in taxable fuel sales between March and April 2020. Coupled with this decline in fuel sales, the revenue projections for Fixing Our Streets also remained low. As motor vehicle traffic returned to pre-Covid levels in 2020 and 2021, taxable fuel sales in Portland began to recover. New and ongoing factors, such as the continued Covid-19 pandemic, the rising price of gasoline due to the war in Ukraine and other geopolitics, as well as inflation may continue to impact fuel sales and Fixing Our Streets revenue into the future.

In addition to the revenue fluctuations, multiple projects were hindered by delays as a result of the global supply chain crisis brought on by the pandemic. On the SW Naito Parkway paving project, delays acquiring Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) traffic paints used for marking green bike lanes and traffic signs slowed project progress. Additionally, specially designed bollards to match the historic Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park concrete barriers took over a year to ship from a supplier overseas. On the SW Capitol Highway (Multnomah Village to West Portland) project, delays in stormwater pipes arriving in Portland – first from the factory being flooded and then supply chain issues – required crews to postpone some construction. These challenges are not easily overcome, are mostly out of the bureau’s control, and may continue to impact project timelines into the future.

Fixing Our Streets projects

Smoother Streets

Depending on the state of the road, paving treatments may involve microsurfacing, grind and repave, base layer repair, or a complete rebuild. Fixing Our Streets (2020-2024) paving funds are focused on preventive maintenance, including repaving streets and applying protective street coating.

Smoother Streets Paving Projects in 2021:

• N Houghton Street (between Haven and Dana avenues)
• N Ida Avenue (between Central and Smith streets)
• N Tillamook Street (between Flint and Williams avenues)
• N Michigan Avenue (between Rosa Parks Way and Ainsworth Street)
• N Michigan Avenue (between Ainsworth and Killingsworth streets)
• N Michigan Avenue (between Webster and Fremont streets)
• NE 138th Place (between Sacramento and Halsey streets)
• NE Alberta Street (between Cully Boulevard and 72nd Avenue)
• SW Bertha Boulevard (between Beaverton Hillsdale Highway and Vermont Street)

Spotlight on Microsurfacing

In 2021, Fixing Our Streets funded nine street segments to receive a paving treatment new to Portland known as microsurfacing, which lays a thin layer of asphalt mixed with polymer fibers on damaged street surfaces. Microsurfacing is a cost-effective treatment for streets in moderate condition. The projects focused primarily on residential streets and neighborhood greenways with many of the improvements located adjacent to or nearby neighborhood schools. The result of this quick, cost-effective technique are smoother roads with longer lifespans.

Microsurfacing has an added benefit of not disrupting neighborhoods for an extended period of time. Traditional grind-and-pave techniques are loud, take multiple days or a full week, and cause traffic delays and detours. With microsurfacing, crews apply the asphalt mixture to a street in a single day, first laying the material and then allowing for it to dry at least 4-6 hours before reopening the street to traffic.

Safer Streets

Through a comprehensive approach, PBOT’s Safe Routes to School program has increased the percentage of students walking or biking to school by 35% since it began in 2006. Fixing Our Streets helps fund school crossing improvements, paths, and missing connections to school grounds, building sidewalks where there are gaps on priority residential streets, and tying in our existing network of bike routes to schools.

In 2021, PBOT constructed 23 Safe Routes to School projects across the city. Projects were selected from the Safe Routes to School plan developed in 2017 with funding from the 2016-2024 Fixing Our Streets program.

Lighting

Portland’s High Crash Network makes up 8% of Portland streets and accounts for 57% of serious-injury crashes and fatalities. Using Vision Zero data, PBOT identified lighting as a critical safety investment. Recent analysis indicates many the streets in our High Crash Network, especially those in some of our most diverse neighborhoods, lack adequate street lighting. In talking with community members, PBOT learned how less safe Black Portlanders feel walking on poorly lit streets. It’s evident better lighting improves visibility for everyone and significantly reduces fatalities and injuries.

In 2022, PBOT will upgrade the lighting along NE Glisan Street between 102nd and 162nd avenues.

Greenways

Neighborhood Greenways are low-traffic residential streets where people of all ages and biking abilities feel safe traveling without a car. They often run parallel to busier streets, proving a quiet place for people to bike, walk, roll, and stroll.

Here are some improvements coming to Portland greenways by year:

2023

Parkrose Neighborhood Greenway (NE 115th Avenue between Fremont Street and Sandy Boulevard).

2024

N Delaware Neighborhood Greenway (between Willamette Boulevard and Terry Streets)

NE Mason-Skidmore Greenway (between NE 37th and 77th avenues)

NE Knott-Sacramento Greenway (between NE 122nd and 162nd avenues)

SE 60s Greenway (between SE Lincoln and Flavel streets)

SW Bertha Boulevard (between SW 35th Avenue and Barbur Boulevard)

Community Transportation Services: Basic Safety Improvements

As our population grows and our streets become busier, we need to be more responsive to basic safety concerns citywide. Eliminating fatalities and reducing serious injuries requires projects big and small. Thanks to funding from Fixing Our Streets, PBOT is creating safer intersections, reducing speeding on cut-through routes, retrofitting our existing Neighborhood Greenways, and making additional safety enhancements to existing projects based on community feedback. In 2021, those safety improvements included:

Spotlight on North Portland in Motion: 

PBOT is currently working through the planning process for North Portland in Motion, documenting ideas for projects and other needs identified by community members, either through focus groups or an online comment map. By the end of 2022, PBOT will create a list of projects they intend to bring to City Council in 2023. Projects would be constructed in 2023 and 2024. Fixing Our Streets funds will be used for a variety of improvements. This includes speed bumps to calm traffic, enhancements to neighborhood greenways, upgrades to bike lanes, filling in gaps in the sidewalk network, as well as new or improved pedestrian crossings and street lighting.

Community Transportation Services – Basic Maintenance

Funding for basic maintenance through Fixing Our Streets allows PBOT to be more responsive to routine requests like fixing potholes, repairing sections of failing road (base repair), or maintaining gravel streets.

PBOT’s Maintenance Operations filled 8,096 potholes in 2021 using $1.25 million out of the $5 million allocated over the four years of the program.

Fixing Our Streets provides $1 million each year to PBOT’s Gravel Street Service. Gravel Street Service improves unimproved streets throughout the city on a 3-year cycle. There is no charge to adjacent property owners. PBOT crews fill potholes and ruts with gravel. The result is a smoother road that makes travel and access easier. In 2021, crews serviced 14.24 center lane miles of gravel streets, or approximately 145,000 square yards of road repair. This year’s cycle covered portions of Southeast Portland.

Base repairs involve excavating a section of failing road down to its dirt base and rebuilding it from scratch. In 2021, PBOT crews completed 96 base repairs across the city. That’s roughly 43,000 square yards of road repair, using almost 5,000 tons of asphalt.

Spotlight on base repair at the intersection of N Killingsworth Street and Concord Avenue

Unearthing local transportation history while fixing a failing street

In April 2021, PBOT street systems crews spent a week on a full base repair at the intersection of N Killingsworth Street and Concord Avenue, thanks to funding from Fixing Our Streets. Base repairs involve digging out the street all the way to the road base. The process of removing layers of concrete and asphalt to reveal the dirt base below is a lot of work.

The problems at this intersection had a clear culprit: old, buried streetcar tracks causing damage from below. Crews dug out the metal rails, carefully separating them from the concrete and asphalt so they could be recycled. Traditionally, buried streetcar tracks have creosote railroad ties they must dispose of as hazardous waste. Surprisingly, the railroad ties appeared to be cedar here.

Historic maps of Portland’s old streetcar lines reveal that these may have been some of the oldest in the city. The city’s first streetcar tracks were installed in 1888 for the St. Johns streetcar line. Cars will pulled by horses before systems were electrified in 1903. Over the years, PBOT’s transportation predecessors chose to fill old rails with concrete, top with more concrete, then asphalt, a process that inevitably leads to these roads failing over time. The only permanent fix is removing the rails and rebuilding the street. Fortunately, with TriMet’s Line 72 bus serving N Killingsworth Street, there is still a public transit option for neighborhood residents.

Once the old concrete, asphalt, and rails were cleared, PBOT crews added a new base layer made from concrete and asphalt recycled from previous projects. This is topped with a fresh layer of asphalt and new striping to finish it off. With this project, PBOT sidewalk crews also rebuilt the corners to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. This includes replacing the historic street name stamps in the concrete – spelling errors and all. Thanks to Fixing Our Streets, the intersection of N Killingsworth Street and Concord Avenue streets is a smoother, safer, and more accessible street for everyone.

Community Transportation Services – Basic Safety

This flexible funding category allocates $10.5 million total towards basic safety improvements in neighborhoods across the city. As our population grows and our streets become busier, Portland needs to be more responsive to basic safety concerns citywide. Meeting our goal of eliminating fatalities and reducing serious injuries requires projects big and small. This includes creating safer intersections, reducing vehicle speeds on cut-through routes, retrofitting our existing Neighborhood Greenways, and making additional safety enhancements to existing projects.

In 2021, PBOT retrofitted the NE Everett Street Neighborhood Greenway between NE 47th and 58th avenues. PBOT crews and contractors built 11 speed bumps and installed six new stop signs for a total of $80,000. Six projects were completed in the category of “Speed reduction on cut-through routes,” representing $425,000 invested in calmer local streets. Those projects included:

• NE Sacramento Street (between NE 111th and 122nd avenues): 11 new speed bumps around Sacramento Elementary School
• SE 60th Avenue (between SE Flavel Street and Flavel Drive): four new speed bumps
• SE Nehalem Street (between 67th and 72nd avenues): four new speed bumps
• SE 64th Avenue (between  Flavel and Clatsop streets): nine new speed bumps
• NE Shaver Street (between 122nd and 141st avenues): 15 new speed bumps
• SE Flavel Drive (between 52nd Avenue and Clatsop Street): 10 new speed bumps

Spotlight on SE Flavel Drive speed bumps

A straightforward solution with a big impact

After PBOT heard from residents and the board of the Brentwood-Darlington Neighborhood Association about high speeds on SE Flavel Drive, staff collected and analyzed traffic and crash data. They evaluated the corridor using PBOT’s Equity Matrix and other policy considerations. Based on those evaluations, PBOT recommended speed bumps.

Before speed bumps were installed most cars were going 35 mph or less.  After the project, preliminary data shows most cars going 25 mph. In addition, the percentage of cars going more than 10 mph over the speed limit went from 50% of traffic to almost zero. Reducing speed here allowed PBOT to install a marked crosswalk from the residential area to Hazeltine Park. Prior to putting these speed bumps in, speeds were too high to safely mark a crosswalk. Thanks to these speed bumps, Fixing Our Streets ensured PBOT could improve this street and make it safer for everyone.

PBOT’s gotten tremendous feedback from the neighborhood, with residents noticing a marked decrease in high-speed traffic.

Heavy Vehicle Use Tax (HVUT)

Current allocations for Heavy Vehicle Use Tax (2020-2024) projects

I-5 to Going Street ramp pavement repair - Repave deteriorating frontage road and ramp from N Killingsworth Street and I-5 southbound to N Going Street westbound to serve freight traffic to Swan Island. Also includes repaving of intersection of N Alberta Street and I-5 off-ramp. HVUT Allocation: $1.064 million. COMPLETE

N Lombard Street base repair - Base repairs along blocks of N Lombard Street between N St. Louis and St Johns avenues seeing deterioration due to high volumes of trucks and buses. Incorporated into the N Lombard Main Street Repair Project. HVUT Allocation: $391,000. UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Columbia-Lombard Wayfinding Improvements, Phase 2 - Changes name of US 30 Bypass section of NE Killingsworth to NE Lombard streets to be consistent with the rest of US 30 Bypass and provide better freight wayfinding. Builds on Phase 1 wayfinding improvements, recently approved by City Council, which includes renaming NE Portland Highway to NE Lombard Street. Requires changing I-205 freeway signage. HVUT Allocation: $200,000. UNDER CONSTRUCTION

42nd Avenue Bridge replacement - Reconstructs aging, weight-restricted, low-height bridge over NE Lombard Street (Highway 30 Bypass) with a modern bridge that meets full height requirements for over-dimensional freight. HVUT Allocation: $2 million. CONSTRUCTION LATE 2022 INTO 2023

Columbia Blvd Intelligent Transportation Systems Improvements, Phase 2 - ITS improvements including signal optimization, radar detection, fiber optic communication, and more. HVUT Allocation: $1.076 million. CONSTRUCTION IN 2023

NE Cornfoot Road Project, Phase 1 - Guardrails, illumination, and asphalt repaving (with some base repair) east of NE Airtrans Way. HVUT Allocation: $2.6 million. IN DESIGN

NE Cornfoot Road Project, Phase 2 Project Development - Develop Phase 2 project from NE 47th Avenue to Airtrans Way for repaving (potentially concrete), intersection improvements, and more. HVUT Allocation: $300,000. IN PROGRESS

NE 11th Avenue (Lombard Street to Columbia Boulevard) Project Development - Pavement reconstruction, curbs, and sidewalks on NE 11th Avenue from Columbia Boulevard to Lombard Street. Close NE Lombard Place just east of 11th Avenue and redesign/upgrade railroad crossing to improve safety and operations for all modes. Upgrade traffic signal at NE 11th Avenue and Lombard Street and add new traffic signal at NE 11th Avenue and Columbia Boulevard. HVUT funding will be used for 30% design and railroad diagnostic. HVUT Allocation: $500,000. IN PROGRESS

Work in Progress – Fixing Our Streets (2016-2020) projects recently completed or still in construction

In 2021, PBOT was able to make significant progress in completing outstanding projects from Fixing Our Streets (2016-2020).

Completed projects in 2021:

• Southwest in Motion - bike lanes
• NE 102nd Avenue - crossing improvements
• Southwest in Motion - crossing priorities
• Montavilla-Springwater Connector
• SE 136th Avenue (from Foster Road to Division Street)
• SW Naito Parkway (from Lincoln to Harrison streets)
• Safer shoulders

Remaining projects currently under construction or starting construction in 2022:

• 122nd Avenue - safety improvements
• Lloyd to Woodlawn Neighborhood Greenway (along NE 7th and 9th avenues)
• Safe Routes to School - traffic signal improvements
• SW Capitol Highway (Multnomah Village to West Portland)
• SW Fourth Avenue (W Burnside to SW Lincoln streets)

Spotlight on SE 136th Avenue

A Fixing Our Streets (2016-2020) project that transforms a street using a combination of safety and maintenance

Over the course of a year and a half of construction which ended in November 2021, PBOT completely transformed SE 136th Avenue between Division Street and Foster Road. This 1.8-mile long section of 136th Avenue is now a “complete street” after PBOT crews and contractors built continuous sidewalks and ADA-compliant curb ramps, improved stormwater runoff, upgraded traffic signals and street lighting, built better access to transit stops, added protected bike lanes, planted new street trees, and repaved the road.

The 1.8 miles of continuous sidewalk added to the west side of SE 136th Avenue makes it easier for students to wall, roll, and stroll to neighborhood schools, including Gilbert Heights Elementary, Gilbert Park Elementary, and Lincoln Park Elementary. It also makes it easier for everyone to get to area parks and destinations like Gates Park, Gilbert Hydro Park, Powell Butte Nature Park, Zenger Farm, Leach Botanical Garden, and more.

Crews made this whole area more accessible by adding or upgrading 48 curb ramps to make them ADA compliant. They improved street crossings which makes it easier and safer for transit riders to get to TriMet Lines 10 and 17. They also upgraded street lighting throughout the corridor, improving visibility and safety for everyone.

In addition to the work on SE 136th Avenue, crews and contractors added two additional bikeway connections. The first connection was to the 130s Neighborhood Greenway, where crews built protected bike lanes on SE Holgate Boulevard between 130th and 136th avenues. They built another new bikeway on SE Center Street, using sharrows and wayfinding signs to connect people to the 150s Neighborhood Greenway.

Crews planted 52 street trees which provide benefits to everyone, including a buffer between the street and sidewalk as well as shade for hot days. Crews also added six new “green street” planters to channel, treat, and contain stormwater runoff.

The total budget for the SE 136th Avenue project was $6.7 million, with $4 million funded by Fixing Our Streets and $2.7 million from Transportation System Development Charges. The prime contractor for the project, Kodiak Pacific, is a woman-owned firm based in Sherwood, Oregon. Seven of the 11 subcontracting firms who worked on the project were certified by the state under the categories of disadvantaged, minority-owned, women-owned, emerging small businesses, or service-disabled veterans’ business enterprises (D/M/W/ESB/SDVBE). Out of the total contract, 33% of work went to these certified firms.

Shared Opportunities – COBID contracting by the numbers

Just over 37% of the total payments on Fixing Our Streets contracts tracked by the city’s Contract Compliance Reporting System went to firms certified by Oregon’s Certification Office for Business Inclusion & Diversity (COBID). COBID has the following certification types: Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, Minority Business Enterprise, Women Business Enterprise, Service Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise, and Emerging Small Business Enterprise.

The percentage of dollars that went to business enterprises owned by those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color was 18.81%. The percentage of dollars that went toward woman-owned business enterprises was 18.16%.

Financial Information

As of 2/28/22

Real and projected revenue for gas tax and Heavy Vehicle Use Tax (HVUT)

Fixing Our Streets (2020-2024) expenditures by project category

Fixing Our Streets (2016-2020) expenditures by project category