Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer is calling for a review of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 tolling plans amid concerns over how the projects are being implemented.
Following a House transportation committee hearing in late September, Chavez-DeRemer — a Happy Valley Republican who represents Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District, including much of Clackamas County — sent a letter on Oct. 16 to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, outlining areas of ODOT’s “deeply flawed” tolling plans.
In her letter to Buttigieg, the congresswoman also criticized DOT’s approach to tolling.
“I am concerned that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) currently approaches tolling with such uncritical deference. In Oregon, tolling moves forward despite intense public opposition, vague and shifting proposals, insufficient studies, superficial public outreach, and no cohesive mitigation strategy. Local leaders and residents furnish pages of concerns. Yet so far DOT, including the Federal Highway Administration … stands aloof,” Chavez-DeRemer wrote.
