(6:45 p.m. Friday, March 8, 2024) Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Portland Transportation Commissioner Mingus Mapps and Portland Transportation Director Millicent Williams made the following comments on the announcement of Biden Administration funding of a half a billion dollars for Albina Vision infrastructure projects.

For details, see the News Release from U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer:
Blumenauer, Wyden, Merkley Announce Nearly Half a Billion for Albina Vision Infrastructure Projects

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced the Department of Transportation is awarding $450,000,000 in federal funding for the I-5 Rose Quarter improvement project. The funding will go toward the construction of a highway cover over a portion of I-5, reconnecting the Lower Albina neighborhood.​

In addition, the Department of Transportation is awarding $38,394,000 to the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) for the redesign of N/NE Broadway and Weidler Streets in Lower Albina.

"We are grateful that the Biden Administration is making this large transportation investment in the Lower Albina neighborhood,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said. "These federal dollars will help build the highway cover that will provide land for community redevelopment and to create a more walkable neighborhood. The grant for the city's transportation bureau will allow us to transform NE Broadway into a main street that will reconnect Albina to downtown and mark a great step in creating a safer, more vibrant neighborhood.”

"I'm so thankful the Biden Administration chose to make a large investment in the Lower Albina area," said Portland Transportation Commissioner Mingus Mapps, who oversees PBOT. "These federal dollars set the stage for Oregon and Portland to reconnect and restore a historic Black neighborhood. I am committed to working towards the restoration and community redevelopment that the Albina Vision Trust has been pushing for. The grant award that PBOT has received will ensure this critical neighborhood work happens and makes N and NE Broadway safer for everyone."

PBOT is the recipient of a Reconnecting Neighborhoods and Communities Grant in the amount of $38 million for the Broadway as a Main Street Project. This project complements and extends the planned investments to the I-5 Rose Quarter cap and provides the opportunity to transform this busy corridor into a more welcoming street for current and future residents.

"This federal investment will help Portland restore and revitalize what was once the largest, most vibrant Black neighborhood in Oregon," said Millicent Williams, the Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT). "We are proud to support the Albina Vision Trust and the aspiration for a neighborhood that creates generational wealth for the Black community. The federal grant we have been awarded provides the funds PBOT needs to transform N/NE Broadway by building wider sidewalks, better pedestrian crossings, more street trees, better street lighting, safer bike lanes and other elements that can reconnect Lower Albina to downtown."