Henry Tabor
The plan for tolls on I-5 and I-205 has been ended. This decision was made by Gov. Tina Kotek.
On March 11, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek called for the end of the Regional Mobility Pricing Project (RMPP), known as the plan to toll I-5 and I-205 from Wilsonville to the Portland Metro Area. Kotek addressed the decision in a letter directed to Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC), Julie Brown and Lee Beyer.
“After years of work, the challenges of implementing the RMPP have grown larger than the anticipated benefits. Therefore, I believe it is time to bring the agency’s work on the RMPP to an end and delay additional expenditures for implementation of tolling on I-205 to the future when the legislature can further evaluate and provide clearer direction on tolling,” Kotek wrote.
The original plan for the RMPP was to help accommodate the surrounding areas, increase funding for other projects in the Portland Metro Area, reduce traffic, and help bring down greenhouse emissions. The proposed plan for the RMPP would be to add a toll gate on the Abernathy bridge, at the State Route 43 and I-205 interchange.
“The primary goal of the finance plan was to document the costs of the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement and the I-205 improvements projects and daylight the extent to which tolling revenues were assumed in their financing,” Kotek wrote. “The finance plan made clear that rising project costs and uncertainty around future toll revenues meant that the state did not have all the funding needed to proceed with the full strategy as originally envisioned. The finance plan also included costs associated with advancing the RMPP and the tolling program overall.” For more information, Gov. Kotek’s full letter to the OTC can be read here.
This is the proposed project map.