Greetings PBOTers,  

With winter weather upon us and crews working around the clock, I hope many of you were able to have a peaceful and safe time over the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Holiday weekend. If any of you lost power, I hope it has been restored as well! Let’s just say that the new year has hardly begun, but we already have moments of PBOT excellence for which we can be proud.  

Thank you, essential workers  

First, we must acknowledge the excellent work of our Maintenance Operations crews working through this latest winter weather event. In 12-hour shifts since Friday, they have delivered on our mission to keep our snow and ice routes clear for first responders, closing roads where they need to for safety, then helping partners like Urban Forestry and utility companies so they can remove debris, restore power, and get roads reopened.   

In fact, unlike last February’s storm, nearly all road closures from this weather event have been due to downed trees and power lines, not abandoned vehicles. This is a credit to a more accurate forecast, but also our stellar Comms team who sent repeated traffic advisories, providing timely and practical advice through every channel—early, often, and throughout this event—so the public knew when to stay home and let our crews do their work.  

In case you didn’t know, many on our Comms team worked throughout the holiday weekend doing media interviews, spreading messages and pictures from our crews on social media, and updating our website so the public was up-to-date on road conditions and closures and ensuring everyone gave our crews space and time to do their work safely. They also boosted messages from our partners and reminded the public to do their part in severe weather—checking on neighbors, shoveling sidewalks, and helping us keep our city moving.  

The public and our agency partners noticed! We’ve had a lot of positive support online and on social media. Look for a roundup of this much-deserved praise below!  

Parking enforcement going above and beyond  

Because cold weather makes us think of vulnerable populations, I also want to acknowledge the diligent work of our parking enforcement teams. Working alongside other city and county partners, these officers engaged in prolonged, meaningful engagement with houseless populations along NE 33rd Drive. The result was not only some recent enforcement before this snow and ice event—with 64 vehicles being towed—but, because of such long engagement, meant 57 people were able to get into shelter or placement in one of several new safe rest villages.  

Next steps on PBOT’s budget  

Meanwhile, the Executive Team and I are working diligently to finalize our budget before we submit to council next month. This means sorting through new forecasts and the recent assurances on additional funding through the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF). I’ll be blunt: it is still a rough financial picture for PBOT, if not as bad as we’d predicted last fall.   

You have my word we will communicate with you soon about this. Please stay tuned to your email and our internal communications through the biweekly Street Cred newsletter and the Scoop email that comes out every Friday.  

Thank you all again for the way you show up for PBOT and for Portland through winters like these!  

You help move PBOT Forward.   

Regards,  

Millicent  

As you plan public involvement or critical staff meetings, it’s important to keep the following dates in mind.

By Kailyn Lamb  

If you’ve been on the 13th floor of the Portland Building, you may have noticed the whiteboard by Communications we once used as a calendar before the Covid-19 pandemic. With our team spread out in the Portland Building, working from home, or in the field, the whiteboard has been perpetually out of date (digital calendars works better for our team). But it’s left us wondering what to do with the giant whiteboard.  

Brady Lovell suggested we make it a pets of PBOT wall and you don’t have to ask us twice. 

A big shout-out to Angel Ordaz and LeCrisha Kauffman, Maintenance Operations Equity Coordinators, who have been rocking a pets of PBOT wall at the Kerby facility for a while. Make sure to stop by and check it out when you’re there. It’s a good excuse to say hi to Angel and LaCrisha.  

As a pet lover, I always want to see pictures of your pets. But we also want to use this to learn a little about you. Fill out the Pets of PBOT Submission form to have them featured. Brady Lovell and I will coordinate to post pictures and other information you provide on the wall on your behalf. Stop by to see your pet in all their glory and learn a little about your colleagues, too. Questions? Email Kailyn Lamb.  

Bonus picture of my dog, Paisley, to get you motivated below.

Please consult this resource before creating any communications materials for PBOT, either external and public-facing or for internal use. This includes websites, advertising, direct mail, postcards, fliers, brochures, booklets, reports, posters, billboards, banners, and all other graphics, video, presentations, and stationery. You should also share this guide with any consultants you’re working with to create materials for PBOT.  

What’s new? 

In addition to updates throughout the guide, we’ve added a new section on accessibility (starting page 10) that includes detailed guidance on PBOT's color palette combinations and font sizes that ensure the greatest legibility and meet our accessibility standards. For example, PBOT's dark blue is fine to use at all font sizes on a white background, but PBOT's orange is not okay to use at any font size on white. PBOT's teal and red on white are only ok to use at a minimum size of 14pt bold or 18pt regular in order to meet accessibility standards. 

Find the Design Guide along with multiple writing guides on PBOT’s employee intranet on the Communications tab.  

We hope this resource is helpful!  

Questions? Contact the full Communications team at PBOTCommunications@portlandoregon.gov. Have an upcoming project needing communications support? Fill out the Comms request form. 

Three cheers and all the virtual high fives to PBOT’s Maintenance Operations teams for their response to the winter weather event that hit Portland last Friday and from which we have yet to thaw from. Crews began pretreating roads earlier last week and went into 24-hour operations starting Friday morning.  

Throughout the holiday weekend, crews kept roads passable by treating them with de-icer, salt, sand, and plowing. The road closure crew was a critical part of this event due to the number of downed trees and power lines, managing at least 50 road closures all over the city. Crews have also been working closely with Portland Parks & Recreation’s Urban Forestry division and utilities like Portland General Electric to handle debris, reopen roads, and restore power as quickly as possible.  

Thankfully the public got the message this year to avoid roads. Nearly every road closure we’ve had was due to downed trees or power lines, not abandoned vehicles.  

Days and nights of winter weather response 

PBOT’s day shift begins at 6 a.m., with night shift coming on at 6 p.m. Each shift starts with a briefing where the team reviews the forecast and plan for the shift. 

Submitted by Steve Hoyt-McBeth 

After serving Portlanders for over three decades, Barbara (Barb) Plummer retires today. We hope many of you are able to attend her farewell gathering which has been postponed to tomorrow (Jan. 18) from 9 - 9:50 a.m. on the 13th floor of the Portland Building.  

“Barb leaves a deep legacy at PBOT. In the 90s she was an early member of PBOT’s bicycle team and implemented bike parking,” said Active Transportation & Safety Division Manager Renata Tirta.  

By Marisa Trujillo DeMull 

January is Mental Wellness Month! To learn more strategies, check out Mental Health America’s steps to live a mentally healthier life.  

This month we are learning about addiction. From GuidanceResources’ site What is addiction?: 

Addiction is a chronic disease characterized by the craving and use of substances that is compulsive or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to use is often voluntary for most people, but repeated use can lead to brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges. 

According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 10-25% of the American population is sometimes on the job under the influence of alcohol or some illicit drug. The social and economic costs of substance abuse in America are staggering. In a report issued in 1998 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism it was estimated that the cost of alcohol and drug abuse for 1995 was $276.4 billion.  

Mental health and substance use disorders affect people from all walks of life and all age groups. These illnesses are common, recurrent, and often serious, but they are treatable and many people do recover. Mental disorders involve changes in thinking, mood, and/or behavior. These disorders can affect how we relate to others and make choices. Reaching a level that can be formally diagnosed often depends on a reduction in a person’s ability to function as a result of the disorder. For example: 

• Serious mental illness is defined by someone over 18 having (within the past year) a diagnosable mental, behavior, or emotional disorder that causes serious functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. 
• For people under the age of 18, the term “Serious Emotional Disturbance” refers to a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder in the past year, which resulted in functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits the child’s role or functioning in family, school, or community activities. 
• Substance use disorders occur when the recurrent use of alcohol and/or drugs causes clinically significant impairment, including health problems, disability, and failure to meet major responsibilities at work, school, or home. 

The coexistence of both a mental health and a substance use disorder is referred to as co-occurring disorders. This page from the National Institute for Mental Health website has information about specific conditions and disorders as well as their symptoms. 

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use disorder or addiction, call our city’s employee assistance program known as GuidanceResources at 855-888-9891 and let ComPsych’s experts help you find the best assistance for your needs. 

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) also provides various program and treatment locators at http://www.samhsa.gov/find-help. You can locate assistance near you for behavioral health treatment, buprenorphine physicians, opioid treatment programs and more. 

To learn more about addiction and treatments, check out GuidanceResources’ Addiction Resource Guide. 

Submitted by Francesca Jones and the Policy Innovation & Regional Collaboration team in the Planning Division 

Happy New Year, dearest PBOTers! We launched the TSP A to Z series a year ago and hope you’ve found it informative! Our first article last year covered the Transportation System Plan (TSP), the city’s 20-year plan to guide transportation policies and investments in Portland. Throughout 2023 we touched on most of the chapters in the TSP including: 

• Centers, corridors, and how policies support moving more people in the same amount of space 
• Prioritizing walking, bicycling, and transit to reach our safety, equity, and carbon reduction goals 
• Pattern areas and mode-split goals  
• Street design and policy classifications  
• Building on TSP policy about moving goods and delivering services  
• Modal policies and performance-based parking management  

Modal plans 

We start 2024 talking about modal plans. Think of them as TSPs for individual modes, 20-year plans required by state policy around different modes of travel in the city (and regionally) including pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and freight movement.  

You’ve heard of some of the big ones: 

• The 2040 Portland Freight Plan (2023) 
• PedPDX: Portland’s Citywide Pedestrian Plan (2019) 
• Safe Routes to School Project Planning (2018) 
• The Vision Zero Action Plan (2016) 
• The Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030 (2011)  

We mentioned regional policy. The Southwest Corridor Plan and the Regional Overdimensional Truck Route Study are examples of modal plans included in the TSP because of the city’s significant jurisdiction and roles as partners in them. 

All these modal plans are supporting documents of both the TSP and the city’s Comprehensive Plan. They help us implement the existing TSP and help inform future updates to the TSP.  

TSP updates, we should explain, must go through a legislative process: from the Planning Commission to Portland City Council to the State Department of Land Conservation and Development, then to the state for acceptance after an appeals waiting period.  

By contrast, modal plans typically only need to go through the Planning Commission and City Council. If they’re purely programming and implementing existing TSP policies, projects, and programs, then they might not even need to do that.  

Next steps  

The TSP is where we reconcile across the various modal plans and with any other plans that could inform potential changes. This ensures quality control and that we’re thinking holistically about how we manage our transportation system.  

An important part of this work is reviewing our financial plans, making sure they pencil out relative to the different modal priorities. This is a great amount of work we must do every time we do a major TSP update. It requires comparing projects with one another on different criteria. 

Right now this section of the TSP simply lists and summarizes all the modal plans since the last minor update. However, things will be a lot different for the update we’re starting this year! More on that soon… 

Questions? Contact Francesca Jones!  

By Abby Hauth 

As we know too well, Portland streets are prone to potholes. Blame it on the rain. Water seeps into pavement cracks, eroding the material and causing potholes to form. So who helps fill and repair these potholes daily throughout the city? I joined the PBOT Street Maintenance crew on a cold but clear morning last month to learn more about their work. 

The four-person crew I followed consisted of Crew Lead Paul Bellis, Auto Equipment Operator Doug Tolonen, and Utility Workers Jerry Hickey and Brian Jacobsen. They were led by Maintenance Supervisor David Zahm. It was clear this team has been working together awhile. They hardly needed to talk as they worked, so in tune with each other as they moved through each step of the process.  

The day started at the intersection of SE 28th Avenue and Carlton Street with a sizeable pothole about two feet across. They were on hand to fill this pothole and add a treatment around the pothole crisscrossed with cracks. This second process, known as skinning, gives the degraded roadway some extra love, ensuring it will last a couple more years than if they had just filled the pothole.  

Clearing debris 

The team starts with clearing debris and gravel from the pothole itself using a leaf blower. They follow with a quick blast from a blow torch to ensure the ground is completely dry for the next round of material. 

“Gluing” the pavement 

Next, crews use a long, hose-like tool connected to their truck to spray a sticky liquid. After another pass with the blow torch, the section is dry with a tacky texture. The sticky liquid is now the “glue” which will bind the original pavement to fresh asphalt.  

Spreading asphalt 

Next up, crews pour asphalt onto the work area then shovel and rake it into place. In mere minutes, with a few precise movements, the asphalt is spread out perfectly.  

Final touches 

Next, crews use a plate compactor which is a similar size and shape as a lawnmower. They use the compactor over the asphalt to seal it in place. For this pothole, since it was getting the skinning treatment, the team repeated all of these steps once more on a larger area of pavement. After the final compaction, they then coated the edges of the new pavement in sand which helps seal it and create a smoother surface for vehicle traffic in the weeks following the work. 

This larger, more involved pothole took the crew about 30 minutes to repair. 

Next? 

With that, the team moved on to a pothole a block away. While the larger pothole took a half hour to fill, this smaller, foot-long pothole took less than five minutes to repair. See image below.