Committee to prioritize project recipients for Oregon funding program

A final review committee will meet June 11 and 12 in Portland, Ore., to prioritize multi-modal transportation projects seeking $42 million in ConnectOregon V funding.

ConnectOregon is a lottery-bond-based state program that provides funding for rail, transit, port and airport infrastructure projects. The state Legislature last year authorized $42 million in ConnectOregon V funds.

For the past several months, multi-modal and regional committees have been reviewing 105 applications that have requested a total of $126.4 million through the program. The committees prioritized the applications and sent their lists to the final review committee, which comprises 26 volunteers from each of the multi-modal and regional committees.
 
The final review committee will send its funding recommendations to the Oregon Transportation Commission, which will make final selections at its Aug. 21-22 meeting.

Freight-rail projects that so far have received a high ranking for ConnectOregon V funding include the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay's rail tunnel rehabilitation (seeking $2 million); Teevin Bros. Land & Timber Co. L.L.C.'s rail intermodal consolidation facility (seeking $2.7 million); Port of Morrow's cold storage rail transload facility (seeking $6 million); city of Ranier's A Street rail safety corridor improvements (seeking $3 million); Portland & Western Railroad's capital city rail program (seeking $3 million); BNSF Railway Co.'s Portland intermodal facility improvements (seeking $4 million); Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad's Winchester heavy repair locomotive facility (seeking $3.9 million); and Roseburg Forest Product's UP rail expansion (seeking $3.2 million).
 
More than 140 multi-modal projects have been approved for funding through the ConnectOregon program since its inception in 2005.