Hundreds of Portland's roads in poor condition, 'scathing' audit finds
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The mayor calls the audit scathing: Hundreds of Portland’s streets are in fair or poor condition.
The reason? City officials have spent only a fraction of the cost on road maintenance that they should have for more than a decade.
According to an audit released on Tuesday, more than 2,000 miles of paved roads have fallen into poor or very poor condition. The city has allocated about $10 million a year to road maintenance, compared to the $85 million a year that’s necessary to restore the streets to better condition, the audit found.
About 60 percent of the Rose City’s arterial streets are in fair or better condition, below the city’s target of 80 percent of the roads being in at least fair condition. As for neighborhood streets, only 53 percent are in fair or better condition.
In all, 44 percent of the city’s streets are considered poor or very poor, according to the audit.
One Portland resident, Larry Walker, knows all too well what the lack of money has done to his neighborhood street in Southwest Portland.
KATU interviewed Walker about the road conditions in 1998. We talked to him again on Tuesday, inquiring whether the street – a segment of 60 miles of unpaved road -- has gotten better.
“No, it has gotten quite worse,” Walker said.
At the time of Walker’s concerns 15 years ago, a KATU investigation found Portland was nearly 500 miles behind in paving roads. Meanwhile, the city was facing a $5 million shortfall in road maintenance.
Then-Commissioner Charlie Hales said: “Every year that goes by, the concern by citizens is going to go higher, but the bill to fix the problem is going to go stratospheric.”
On Tuesday, now-Mayor Hales admitted city officials have done little to tackle the road woes in the last decade.
“I’m sorry to say that I was prophetic when I said that because it has gotten worse and the council in the last decade plus has not got on top of this problem,” Hales said.
Asked whether other large projects, such as Portland’s street car and Oregon Health & Science University tram, took attention away from road maintenance, Hales said there needs to be more of a balance between projects and maintenance.
City officials said they are unsure where to drum up the funds to pay for extra road maintenance. Both the city’s auditor and mayor said the city must develop a strategy to pay for the necessary repairs.
That's because all the money was spent on bike trails...
What happened to those campaign promises?
How can you Host The Olympics if you can't even afford to fix your roads? Just saying. Would be nice to do that.
Why not hold all the fat-cat's in office (City, County, State, Fed) Accountable for their misappropriations. Audit them all! We will quickly find out where all our tax dollars actually go... In their pockets!
I can see why Sam A. likes bikes, he does enjoy having things shoved up his backside.
@PeterAWolf Wow. That's some original, cutting-edge humor. It's like the 8th grade, four years later.
We get it. You're obsessed with homosexuality and/or anal sex, but, do we really need to bring that into the discussion?
@Playanekes @PeterAWolf My sarcasm was pointing out that "sam" spent his time thinking about gay sex rather than the lives and safety of Portlanders. He was also well known for disappearing on the job. And he fully backed the Occupy crowd that publically urinated and defecated on our streets. And by his own admission was a pedophile (think of Beau Breedlove). He has a very consistent pattern of boorish and self centered behavior. Â
I can understand  the pent-up frustration and outright anger regarding Portland's street conditions.  But for all of you who are here venting, and scapegoating cyclists in the process, please consider.  Cyclists did not create the potholes, and cyclists did not prevent PBOT from doing road maintenance.  In fact, several large paving projects, such as Sandy Blvd, were part of the 2012 PBOT budget.  Additionally, road improvements such as bike lanes and bike boxes benefit drivers, by segregating modes of travel so that automobile travel lanes are clear, and by creating safer environments at certain intersections.  Yet the opinion of many is that these road improvements are somehow underserved, un-paid-for free bennies for cyclists at the expense of drivers.  Not true.  If someone is cycling into the city it's a good bet they are going to work, or to school.  Voters, taxpayers, citizens, just like you, simply choosing a different mode of travel. Do you support unsafe roads in your community?  Do you honestly believe cyclists don't want roads in good repair any less than you do?  Ever hit a pothole on a bike?  It is not an "either/or", "us vs. them" conversation, as much as the local media tries to play up that false dialogue to get everyone anti-bike riled up, and spend time on their website reading advertising in the process.  And since most cyclists also own and drive cars, they already get the "car" point of view as well.  Cyclists aren't second-class citizens simply because they choose to leave their car at home and enjoy the benefits of commuting by bike.  So stop the scapegoating, and hold PBOT accountable for road maintenance decisions that benefit everyone using Portland's streets.
@wayneh1253 It's not the cyclists, it's the policy of building bike paths and epically-expensive rail systems that will operate a millions of dollars of loss every year, because the city planners had some idea in their head that it will promote tourism and high-end development; ie, taxing and pricing the local working class out of the ability to buy a reasonable home for under $300,000.
If they gave up on this social experiment and let the cyclists enjoy the routes that exist, and spend that sequioa-cutting, bridge-building "green space" money on something other than bike paths and toy trains, the roads would be safe for motorcycles AND bikes too.
So, my point is, my anger is really more about the construction of bike -lanes- we can't afford, rather than cyclists themselves. When the economy is back up, let's pay our debts, save up some money, and, if we can afford it, build lots of bike lanes. Until then, my friends are out filling their roads with old asphalt and gravel while the city chops down a sequioa to build a bike bridge.
NE 96th ave. large potholes. Been here forever. Large trucks come barreling down the gravel road (which technically is like 15mph) and they are doing 35mph hitting every pothole making them bigger. Not to mention the health issues with gravel dust being kicked up in your face every ten minutes in the summer
It doesn't take an audit for anyone who drives on Portland's streets to know that they are in horrible condition. Sammie Adams' legacy.
Memo to Hales:Â Here is an opportunity to show the citizens of Portland that you have your priorities straight by getting back to basics first.Â
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ODOT= state of oregon they have nothing to do with city streets   be careful whom you are calling a retard.
@TheUglyTruth This article is about Portland's streets, not ODOT. Reading the article before commenting is usually helpful.Â
@I812 @TheUglyTruth Ignore him....as you can see, he hasn't a clue what he's whining about.
Maybe we can fix the potholes with green bicycle lane paint.
clearly obamas fault.
if everyone had ar-15's this would have never happened.
SE 70th ave in Milwaukie is part of the barrio and Milwaukie doesn't care.
The city is too busy spending money on giving transgender individuals the means of an operation. God knows they deserve it more than usable roads for the rest of the citizens.
Vera and Sam. That was the plan. Spend all the road money on light rail. Make Portland into New York City. Put everyone into high rises. The electric company, the unions, the construction companies and the banks thought that was a good idea. They're pushing the same agenda into Clark and Clackamas counties.Â
Asked whether other large projects, such as Portlandâs street car and Oregon Health & Science University tram, took attention away from road maintenance, Hales said there needs to be more of a balance between projects and maintenance.
Thats not an answer to the question KATU, please tell me you pinned him down on an answer.
Milwaukie is going the way of Portland.  The streets are terrible, pot holes everywhere. But they waste $160,000 on planning a baseball team and giving 5 million dollars  to trimet without a vote of the people and spending all their time and money on a park by the river.
But, Portland has some really cool 'bike boxes', and streetcar lines that can take you from PSU to the tram!
*sarcasm intended*
I wonder if the ancient Romans had this same problem? What ever happened to them ?
@Razor1Â They were conquered by illegal aliens (Germans) who they allowed to filter into the empire from the north to do their menial work.
See what happens when you have more takers than producers? portland is so top heavy with cool, and groovy hipsters that there isn't enough income revenue to keep the infrastructure in working order.
Portland you need to trade the tattoos, and doughnuts for calloused hands and work boots.... not everyone can be a starving artist.
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Or give...
Not to mention the fact that Portland is very car un-friendly, and will do what it takes to make it as difficult as possible to drive a car, or park it there. Let's see, they have just raised the parking rates(again), they are building an apartment building with no provisions for tenant parking, narrow roads. But if you are a bike rider, you get a nice smooth ride, the green boxes to protect you from your stupidity, you get to violate the traffic laws with virtual impunity...
If we didn't spend sow much money on bike lanes stop bars and just being enablers to poor judgment on there part to riding on the road we would have a little more money
Cool, we wasted all our money on bike lanes and trains. Now we're going to have to raise taxes to fix this mess. Such crap, I hate this city.
@Jeepers Thats one of the reasons I moved. It just got to be so silly with Sammy.
SE 70th Ave in Milwaukie is a disgrace!
Rule of thumb is, repave 1/7 of the roads every year. Shifting the money for other projects is purely incompetence.
Need to think about paying our debts. Then generating profits. Then savings. Then that's when the state can afford to spend on maintenance.
@Douglas Walls uhh no. They have taken road tax money and spent elsewhere. Time for the city to figure out where to make money to pay for all this. I suggest implementing a bike tax, and scrapping out these dumb trains.
What's shocking is.. it doesn't take an audit to find out the roads in Portland suck..... yet somehow.. money is magically available for bicycle paths, boxes, etc. which is low priority. Portland has things ass backwards. Vancouver, SW Washington have better roads then Portland.
@Liberty4_WAÂ But to have access to those good roads you're stuck in Vancouver. Â That's like choosing between warts or cancer.
What makes me laugh is there is signs near my work in Portland... where they have a "pot hole" tip line to call and report pot holes to be fixed..... as if they are proactive.
Everyone knows that Sam diverted funds from road maintenance to bike projects.  Why is anyone one surprised?Â
We will soon hear a LOT more about the Portland City Transporation Department. There is a reason Sam and Randy both chose not to run for re-election. Do not be surprised to see that their hands are very, very dirty in a soon to be announced scandal.
Just to pour salt in the wound...I passed two totally empty streetcars tonight on MLK/Grand. Awesome!
As long as we have bicycle lanes, for which bicyclists don't pay; Crime-met, whose operating revenues cover only a fraction of the cost and; whose expansion has been repeatedly voted down by the citizenry, why do we need roads? After all, the people who pay registration and licensing fees and fuel taxes don't REALLY expect anything in return for their "donations", do they? Â
Is that just part of "paying their fair share"?
@Conspirator Stop asking the city to use my property taxes on local roads then.
Okay, done! Pretty safe to say your property tax money was getting funneled into bike lanes, which doesn't count towards maintance.
This is laughable. Â I just got home and saw this article, and am late in jumping in, but DUH? Â All you have to do is drive 10 minutes in any direction anywhere in the city to figure this out.. Â
There really is an official "audit" document. Â Wow. Â This is really funny. Â Very sad, but very, very funny. Â
@greeneyedpea I wonder how much money was spent on this audit which is already common knowledge.
On the corner Sw Whitaker/Sw Kelly ave I drive on the left side of the street to miss the HUGE dip in the road. When you turn on Kelly st, there's more pot holes!!! That needs serious road repair!!!
We need to think about maintain the streets, not more bike lanes. The cyclists don't use them anyway.
I wonder how much Sam got away with, maybe some city council members?
82nd is not a city street ....state hwy....bad shaoe
bicycle paths or car lets see!
Makes for good city muddin! Thanks for worrying about bike riders and trains!!!!