New interchange gets a green light.

Byline: MATT COOPER The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - A $122 million overhaul of the Interstate 5/Belt Line Road interchange was unanimously approved Thursday after agreements were reached on building sound walls near Harlow Road and permitting local participation in redesigning a nearby intersection.

Government officials have spent more than two years working with local residents and businesses to redesign the interchange to eliminate motorists' dangerous "weaving" movements on the various off-ramps and on-ramps. Construction of the first phase would begin in 2006.

Five officials - one each from Springfield, Eugene, Lane County, the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration - approved the project after it was agreed the sound walls will be built and that businesses and residents in the Gateway area of northwest Springfield will have a say in how traffic should be rerouted in the vicinity of the Belt Line-Gateway Street intersection.

Some have said as many as 15 businesses could be affected once the new series of entrances and exits are built. But Todd Cooley, speaking for Gateway businesses, said they're counting on the city to look out for their interests.

"We are not confident in ODOT and the feds - frankly, we don't trust them," Cooley said.

The project includes an agreement between the state and the city that a steering group will handle the intersection redesign and include Gateway businesses and residents, said Bonnie Ullmann of the Game Farm Neighbors neighborhood group.

"We're in the nature of limiting the damage," Ullmann said. "This is the beginning of a new process and we're going to have to continue to be involved in it."

Although final federal approval of the interchange project is still needed, a representative of the Federal Highway Administration, John Gernhauser, was one of the five officials who voted to approve the project Thursday. Facilitator Marcy Schwartz called the project a "done deal."

The sale of revenue bonds under the Oregon Transportation Investment Act will provide $18 million to start construction. But officials still must find the money to pay for the sound walls and for the second and third phases of construction, said Bob Pirrie, a state transportation department manager who also voted Thursday to approve the project.

Officials plan to rely on state and federal dollars and private contributions to raise as much as $100 million for the project, Pirrie said.

Rob Zako, a Eugene resident and local transportation funding watchdog, said he wants the federal government to demand a full accounting of the project's funding before approving it.

Zako said the quest to fund the interchange project in coming years could eclipse other worthwhile needs in the region.

"Ultimately, we can get that money," he said. "But while we're doing that, we're not asking for money for other things. We've tied our hands for the next 20 years."

After two hours of debate, Eugene City Councilor David Kelly said his vote of support hinged on two things: the guarantee of a continuous sound wall for Harlow Road-area residents, and analysis indicating that PeaceHealth will protect the integrity of the project by limiting trips to and from its planned $350 million regional medical complex nearby.

Earlier reports on the interchange project hadn't included the hospital's impact, Kelly said, and that's like "ignoring the elephant in the room."

Jim Hanks of JRH Transportation Engineering, a firm that helped analyze the interchange project, said PeaceHealth will reduce trips to and from the proposed hospital campus by building fewer medical office buildings, building more assisted-care facilities and supporting the use of alternative transportation.

After 2 1/2 years of occasionally contentious meetings and debate, officials and citizens attending Thursday's meeting applauded the unanimous decision and breathed sighs of relief.

Other people felt less celebratory. Eugene resident Mark Robinowitz, for example, predicted that the interchange project will result in the need to expand the Eugene-Springfield urban growth boundary.

"I'm concerned we're building an oversized, overpriced, California-style freeway project to benefit PeaceHealth at the expense of existing businesses, farmland and the McKenzie River," Robinowitz said. "There's a legitimate safety issue at the interchange, but that doesn't require a $100 million fix."

INTERCHANGE OVERHAUL

A $122 million overhaul of the Interstate 5/Belt Line Road interchange is slated to begin in 2006.

Phase I: A "flyover" ramp will connect northbound traffic on I-5 to westbound Belt Line; the northbound I-5 off-ramp to Belt Line will be improved and a traffic signal will be added; the off-ramp from I-5 southbound to westbound Belt Line will be straightened; a bike-pedestrian bridge will connect the Harlow neighborhood and Gateway Mall; and a sound wall will be built along the south side of Belt Line and the west side of I-5.

Phase II: Slated sometime between 2009 and 2015, the Belt Line-Gateway Street intersection will be rerouted so traffic moves only southbound on Gateway from the intersection to Kruse Way; traffic northbound on Gateway will be rerouted east at Kruse Way and north on Hutton Street to Belt Line.

Phase III: Generally slated for 2023, a ramp over I-5 will connect eastbound traffic on Belt Line to northbound I-5; an off-ramp will connect eastbound Belt Line to I-5 southbound; an improved on-ramp will connect westbound Belt Line to I-5 southbound.

For more information, call the state Department of Transportation at 744-8080.

- State Department of Transportation

CAPTION(S):

The Interstate 5/Belt Line Road interchange has become congested as the Gateway area has grown.