The ramps at the east side of the Fremont Bridge. Taylor Griggs
North Portland's Boise and Eliot neighborhoods are some of the most walkable and bikeable in the city, with easy access to cafes, bars, and parks. New residential and commercial developments are popping up regularly in the neighborhoods, especially along North Mississippi Vancouver, and Williams Avenues.
But some neighborhood residents and advocates say the area is blighted by poor land use and car-centric planning. One example is the I-405 ramp, located adjacent to N Kerby Ave between N Mississippi Ave and N Gantenbein Ave, which disconnected the surrounding street grid upon its construction more than 50 years ago. According to the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), the ramp is overbuilt for car traffic and could use scaling back.
Now, thanks to a recently-announced $1 million planning grant from the US Department of Transportation's Reconnecting Communities Pilot Grant program, the city and neighborhood advocates will have a chance to explore new ramp configurations that better serve the area's current needs.
The I-405 ramp along N Kerby was built as part of the Fremont Bridge project in the 1970s. It was initially intended to make up the first segment of the Rose City Freeway, which was planned to extend east several miles along Northeast Fremont Street. That freeway wasn't built, sparing hundreds of homes and businesses in Northeast Portland. But the I-405 ramp made its mark on a neighborhood already blighted by earlier freeway construction and other urban renewal projects.
The ramp is located within the historic Albina neighborhood, an enclave for Black Portlanders throughout the early 20th century and particularly from 1940 until the early 1960s, when construction of I-5 and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum forced many out of their homes. In the early 1970s, the city demolished hundreds more homes and businesses in the neighborhood to clear the way for an expansion of Emanuel Hospital and I-405 ramp construction.
"All those things were happening at the same time," Allan Rudwick, a transportation advocate and Eliot Neighborhood Association board member, told the Mercury. "The whole neighborhood was being destroyed for these projects."
Rudwick has been working with PBOT for several years brainstorming possibilities for a new ramp layout. He said he became interested in making changes to the area while walking with his two young children to Boise-Eliot Elementary School, located just north of the ramp on N Fremont St and N Borthwick Ave.
"My family will have a 10-year relationship with the elementary school by the time both my kids are done," Rudwick said. "My hope is that shovels will have broken ground [on the ramp reconstruction project] by that time."
Since the project is in early planning stages, there's no official design mapped out for what the reconfiguration would look like. But Rudwick has sketched out a proposal to shorten the ramp by roughly a block, adding new surface streets to better accommodate local traffic, while leaving access for those traveling on and off the Fremont Bridge.
"These ramps serve as both access into the larger area and an enduring legacy reminder of some of the worst mistakes of the mid-century. There is a growing community movement in Boise and Eliot to redesign or remove these ramps," PBOT's grant application states. "However, there is much needed technical and modeling analysis to understand potential impacts to the highway and local street system and evaluate a range of capital projects that would alter these ramps to reclaim land for better integration into the surrounding neighborhoods."
The grant will also allow the city and neighborhood partners to study potential changes to PBOT's upper and lower Albina maintenance yards facilities, located on either side of the I-405 ramps. According to PBOT's grant application, the transportation bureau plans to relocate or redesign both the upper and lower maintenance yards.
"There are long-standing questions regarding whether to upgrade and/or relocate core functions for the PBOT maintenance fleet and central operations," the application states. "This study would identify either a consolidation strategy, partial relocation, or full relocation of maintenance operation facilities."
Finally, the planning grant will enable the city to work with neighborhood residents on an "equitable vision plan," mapping out "opportunities a reconfigured ramp could offer in terms of a redesigned streetscape...and new development opportunities." The city will use this plan to guide its future work in the area.
While a $1 million grant (plus a $250,000 local match from PBOT) to study and plan the future of this area may seem like a small step, it's a necessary one in order for the project to qualify for future funding opportunities.
"We needed this planning grant to make the project a more official thing, instead of it being just some civilians with an idea," Rudwick said.
The project is also part of a much larger revitalization plan for the Albina area. In recent years, the Albina Vision Trust and Historic Albina Advisory Board have led highly-publicized and well-financed efforts to reconnect and redevelop the lower part of the neighborhood, creating new cultural and economic opportunities for Black Portlanders in the process.
The Lower Albina plan received USDOT funding from the Reconnecting Communities pilot program in 2023 and 2024, including a planning grant and a major capital investment. The incoming presidential administration may limit the availability of more federal funding for projects like the I-405 ramp reconfiguration, but the city and local advocates remain eager to get to work on planning.
"This grant represents an important step toward addressing the historical impacts of infrastructure decisions in North and Northeast Portland," Priya Dhanapal, deputy city administrator for Portland's Public Works Service Area (which includes PBOT) said. "By fostering meaningful collaboration with the community, we can create a blueprint for connectivity and equitable investment that honors the area's rich history and future potential."
Portland will receive an additional $2 million from the USDOT's Reconnecting Communities pilot to study transit, housing, and other possibilities for community development on 82nd Avenue. The East Portland arterial is the site of a major, ongoing redesign project involving multiple local government agencies, including PBOT, the Oregon Department of Transportation, TriMet, and Metro.