ConnectOregon

TRANSIT AVIATION MARINE RAIL BIKE/PED MULT MODES Introduction Contents ConnectOregon, created by the Legislature in Aurora State ...... 3 2005, uses Oregon Lottery-backed bond dollars to leverage funding of non-highway projects throughout City of Prineville Railway ...... 5 the state. Since its inception, ConnectOregon has put $427 Coos Bay Rail Link ...... 7 million for rail, aviation, marine, public transit, bicycle/ pedestrian and multimodal projects. Here is a selection Fred Wahl Marine Construction ...... 9 Number of Projects of successful projects from throughout the program’s history. More information and engaging videos are Pioneer Parkway Corridor ...... 11 located at www.oregon.gov/ODOT/COMM/Pages/ Port of Morrow ...... 13 ConnectOregon-Stories.aspx. 34 76 36 72 12 4 Teevin Bros. Land & Timber ...... 15 Sandy Transit Facility ...... 17 ConnectOregon Funding (in Millions) Tualatin River Greenway Trail Project ...... 19 Project Distribution by Mode ...... 20 $49.7 $101.7 $69.4 $173.1 $13.9 $15.5

Includes ConnectOregon Rural projects. Chart does not include administrative costs. ConnectOregon

Aurora State Airport uilt by the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 to support one of the biggest avionics dealers in the country, and Life Flight air Bthe Portland Army Air Base during World War II, the Auro- ambulance. ra State Airport has grown to become the third busiest airport in An additional 274 jobs off the airport property are directly Oregon. attributed to off-airport visitor spending, totaling nearly 1,500 jobs. The airport, operated by the Oregon Department of Aviation, Justin Dillingham is the Chief Customer Officer for Life is located northwest of Aurora in Marion County. After decades Flight Network, the largest nonprofit helicopter emergency medical without an tower, Aurora State Airport enhanced services operations in the country. He says the safety and collision the safety and efficiency of its take-off and landing operations with avoidance technology paid for in part by ConnectOregon has been the 2015 construction of a $3.3 million Federal Aviation Administra- extremely valuable. tion control tower, the first of its kind for the 32 regional airports in Oregon. “We serve Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, so we have to bring equipment in and out of our headquarters at Aurora A $2.7 million ConnectOregon III grant helped fund the new for maintenance as well as operate our life-saving service. It can be tower, which provides air traffic controllers with unobstructed views quite hectic,” Dillingham says. “Having the Aurora Air Traffic Con- of the airfield as well as visual and electronic monitoring of take- trol Tower increases our efficiency – in life-saving operations, every offs, landings and ground movement of aircraft. minute counts and the faster you can fly out, the better.” According to the 2014 Oregon Aviation Plan’s Economic “The Aurora air traffic control tower represents the best in Impact Study, the Aurora State Airport’s economic impact equaled transportation infrastructure improvements that ConnectOregon more than half a billion dollars, not including tax revenue generated brings to Oregon,” says Mitch Swecker, director of the Oregon from property or income tax. Airport businesses employ 1,200 peo- Department of Aviation. “It brought us a safer airport and helped ple, including two of the largest and most recognized heavy-lift heli- attract new business enterprises and jobs to the local communities in copter companies in the world—Columbia and Helicopter Transport the region.” Services—as well as the biggest kit-plane manufacturer in the world,

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City of Prineville Railway he City of Prineville Railway (COPR) is the oldest continuous- The railway had a stellar year in 2016 with projected double-digit Tly operated municipal shortline railroad in the United States. increases in carloads and revenue and more than 30 customers from Recent achievements can be directly connected to a succession of a variety of industries, including Les Schwab Tires, Carson Oil Co., ConnectOregon investments. Three rounds of ConnectOregon invest- the Malheur Lumber Co., and EnviroTech Services, which ships ments (CO I, II and III) helped develop a 37-acre freight depot site magnesium chloride de-icer liquid via rail throughout the country. —a former lumber mill located three miles west of Prineville—and “COPR now has more than 100 direct jobs on our line and enhanced intermodal capability throughout central Oregon. we’ve relocated three businesses that had been looking to move out The City of Prineville Railway’s freight depot is a regional mul- of Oregon,” says Railroad Operations Director Matt Wiederholt. timodal hub with transload, warehousing and distribution facilities. “ConnectOregon allowed us to invest in infrastructure that helps in- Instrumental in the COPR’s success is its unique transportation cubate new business, compete for relocating businesses and provide advantage: it is connected to both the Union Pacific and Burlington rail access for central Oregon shippers.” Northern railroads, which translates into direct transportation cost savings for Prineville area businesses. The railway also has the ability to accumulate products until a full railcar load is on site and then load out a railcar for a customer, or to unload an inbound product and store it on site and deliver it just in time to a customer plant or job site.

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Coos Bay Rail Link eorgia-Pacific West and other southern Oregon commodity Trestles, bridges, rail, ties and ballast were all repaired, restoring Gshippers remember the devastating embargo of freight rail the line so trains can travel 25-40 miles per hour in the future, re- service in September 2007. The closure, from Vaughn in Lane Coun- ducing the time and cost to get goods to market. Coos Bay Rail was ty to the North Spit of lower Coos Bay, was coupled with discon- named Shortline Railroad of the Year in 2014. tinued service on rail spurs that served Roseburg Forest Products in The port’s success with ConnectOregon began in 2006, when its Coquille and Southport Forest Products on the North Spit, forcing partnership application with Southport Forest Products obtained shippers to truck product at significantly higher costs. $506,000 to help redevelop a heavy-lift barge slip, creating a mul- The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay took action to se- timodal barge facility with access to rail and road. The facility now cure service for regional manufacturers by acquiring and re-opening handles ocean-going cargo barges able to move inbound logs, out- the rail line in western Lane, western Douglas and Coos counties. bound woodchips and a variety of break bulk (individually loaded) general cargo. The port raised $31 million to rehabilitate the Coos Bay Rail Link, including a $7.8 million ConnectOregon III grant and a $13.5 “This barge operation increases Southport Forest Product’s abil- million federal Transportation Infrastructure Generating Economic ities to handle multiple products, better control transportation costs Recovery (TIGER) II grant. and grow our customer base,” says owner Jason Smith.

“These grants were necessary to fund rail projects tending to “ConnectOregon has been instrumental in supporting transpor- years of deferred maintenance,” says Port Commission President tation infrastructure development across the state,” says State Rep. Dave Kronsteiner. “Without state and federal funding, reopening Caddy McKeown, D-Coos Bay. “It’s a program that makes a real the rail line, a vital multimodal connection point for Oregon’s South difference for Oregonians, particularly in our rural areas.” Coast, would have been impossible.”

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Fred Wahl Marine Construction red Wahl Marine Construction, the largest private employer in Zimmer says the company committed $5.3 million to the $8.7 FReedsport, received a $3.4 million ConnectOregon grant to build million facility, a 61 percent match of the ConnectOregon grant a nine-story shipbuilding facility which will facilitate company plans funding (the program requires a 30 percent match). Scheduled for to expand its workforce by 50 percent. completion in 2018, the expansion is designed to decrease the cost to boat owners while increasing operational efficiency. Fishing vessel The new facility on Bolon Island, located between Reedsport owners want to return to the water more quickly, especially given the and Gardiner, will allow Fred Wahl Marine Construction to increase shorter season and weather-related challenges. its workload and move shipbuilding and repair work out of the rain when necessary. The firm expects its current staff of roughly 90 Reedsport City Manager Jonathan Wright notes that the eco- employees to increase by another 40 when the building is completed. nomic effect of adding 40 new family-wage jobs in Reedsport was like adding hundreds of jobs in the Portland-metro area. “We’re pretty excited about it, to tell you the truth,” says Project Manager Jim Zimmer. “The idea is that we would be able to pick the “From a city manager perspective, that’s all you can ever hope boats out of the water, drive them into this building, close the doors for,” Wright says. “Anytime we can build jobs back, especially ones and it wouldn’t matter what the weather is doing. We can sandblast, like Fred Wahl Marine’s (jobs) which are family-wage jobs with bene- paint, work on it in a nice environment.” fits, that’s a huge deal.”

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Pioneer Parkway Corridor ane County’s highest level of employment growth resides along ConnectOregon funding helped construct a six-mile corridor Lthe Pioneer Parkway corridor and the Gateway/RiverBend area. that connects existing EmX service in downtown Eugene to the downtown Springfield Station, the Gateway Mall, the Sacred Heart The ConnectOregon program invested in the Pioneer Parkway Medical Center at RiverBend, and the rapidly-growing area of north Bus Rapid Transit project, a significant expansion of Lane Transit Springfield. District’s new EmX line, which connects the rest of the region to a new hospital and the single largest cluster of hotels between Port- The $41.3 million project began construction in 2009. It was land and San Francisco—a key part of the region’s tourism industry. the district’s second EmX service expansion, following eight stations opened in 2007. The Pioneer Parkway Bus Rapid Transit project The EmX system is composed of high-frequency, fast bus built 13 new stations along the corridor, a new transit station in front service along major corridors that emulates the speed, comfort and of The Shoppes at Gateway, and exclusive transit lanes that reduce convenience of rail systems, as well as smaller buses providing access congestion and the demand for parking while increasing mobility for from neighborhoods to the EmX lines and nearby shopping and freight and deliveries. employment facilities. The EmX buses are noted for their low oper- ational costs and low energy use, providing many of the advantages “This investment is all about accessibility and connecting of light rail at a lower cost to build. this economic growth center to the rest of the region,” says Tom Schwetz, director of planning and development at Lane Transit Dis- Lane Transit District used the $5.4 million ConnectOregon grant trict. “Approximately 30,000 people now have access to 23,000 jobs and its own $2.9 million match to leverage $33 million in federal via high-frequency transit as a result.” funding.

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Port of Morrow he Port of Morrow, Oregon’s second-largest port, is located The project proved vital for some of the largest employers in Tin the heart of the Pacific Northwest, strategically connected the Columbia River Basin—food companies like ConAgra Foods, to all major transportation modes via Columbia River barges, the Boardman Foods, Tillamook County Creamery Association, Calbee Union Pacific Railroad and interstate highways. North America and the Oregon Potato Company.

A $6 million ConnectOregon V grant helped fund a $12.1 million “Cold storage space at the Port of Morrow is a critical part project to build a freezer warehouse and a rail transload facility (a of the port’s infrastructure to utilize the intermodal transportation 2,500-foot spur and switches) in the port’s East Beach Industrial benefits of the port’s strategic location,” says Gary Neal, general Park to address a shortage of cold storage space. manager for the Port of Morrow.

Completed in 2015, the Port of Morrow’s public cold storage After the June 2015 grand opening, the warehouse was full by facility in Boardman features 45 million pounds of storage capacity August. Responding to requests for more space, port management and 110,000 square feet of zero-degree cold storage. The warehouse launched an expansion project in spring 2016 to double the ware- is strategically located in proximity to businesses needing services house size to 220,000 square feet with holdings increasing to about and infrastructure to keep transportation costs to the facility at a 85 million pounds. Dry storage will also be part of the phase II minimum. expansion project.

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Teevin Bros. Land & Timber ne of the largest private marine terminals on the West Coast out of the Portland/Vancouver market, especially with cargo mov- Ois in Rainier, a multimodal facility that provides cross-docking ing by shortline rail, and meets regional demand for increased access and storage management services with just in time inventory control. to coastal markets for timber and construction materials without Teevin Bros. Land & Timber Co., with its marine terminal, two pri- adding congestion to the interstate system. vate rail spurs, a log yard, and close access to Interstate 5, produces “ConnectOregon investments move lumber from Brookings to jobs in a rural Oregon economy with help from the ConnectOregon Maui with only the first 100 miles by truck,” says Intermodal Facil- program. ities Manager Paul Langner. “That’s the positive impact from true The Teevin Bros. Intermodal Facility serves the marine highway intermodal. More than 60 Oregon businesses reach customers in system coastwise, riverwise, and to the central Pacific, sending and Hawaii without traveling into Washington or California first.” receiving cargo moving from Idaho, Washington, California, Hawaii The facility moves more than 12,000 rail cars of building mate- and British Columbia. The company’s ConnectOregon III project rials and forest products to market each year. Each rail car represents created an intermodal facility that efficiently links rail to barge by 3½ truckloads, which means more than 42,000 trucks don’t travel on adding rail siding, a transloading and cross-docking area, handling I-5 through Portland’s metro area each year. equipment and barge/ship moorings. Additionally, Teevin Bros. has improved the terminal through More than 60 new family-wage jobs are attributable to the ex- ConnectOregon IV, which helped expand its size and reach capacity, pansion and modernization where seven full-time positions existed and ConnectOregon V, which helped extend an existing rail spur. before. The Rainier facility on the Columbia River takes congestion

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Sandy Transit Facility ocated east of Gresham and about 25 miles from Portland, the ConnectOregon helped provide the needed infrastructure to Lcity of Sandy experienced major population growth over the support the city’s transit system, connecting people to and from rural past two decades, stimulating the need for transit services for resi- and suburban east Clackamas County with the greater Portland area dents commuting to jobs within the region and the greater Portland as an alternative means of transportation to access employment. area. Since construction, Clackamas County transit services have been From 2000 to 2010, the city of Sandy achieved population enhanced with the expansion of drivers, routes, times and park and growth of 77.7 percent. Sandy Transit also grew quickly, from one ride usage. bus on one route, providing 77,000 rides in its first year (2000) to “Our facility grew into a hub of operations and maintenance for 11 vehicles on two commuter routes and one dial-a-ride service that both Sandy Transit and Clackamas County’s expanded Mount Hood provided more than 250,000 annual rides between 2007 and 2013. Express service, creating a network of connectivity that reaches as A successful $800,000 grant from the firstConnect Oregon pro- far as Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood,” says Transit Manager gram helped construct a $2 million joint Transit and Public Works Andi Howell. “Our ridership has also grown more diverse. We now Operations Facility. Completed in 2008, the center hosts the admin- have as many riders coming to Sandy for work, recreation, shop- istrative and transit operations, maintenance, bus washing facilities ping, school and medical services as we have riders using our transit and a park-and-ride. Buses also park at the facility in a secure gated service to travel outside our community.” lot with garages.

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Tualatin River Greenway Trail Project he League of Oregon Cities presented its 2016 Award for Ex- The project included removal of invasive, non-native plants Tcellence to the city of Tualatin for its Tualatin River Greenway on more than two acres on the south bank of the river, replaced by Trail project, which was partially funded by ConnectOregon V. trees and shrubs designed to improve water quality, fish habitat, soil conservation, air quality and natural beauty. The $1.6 million ConnectOregon grant helped join a missing link in Tualatin’s active transportation network, which runs 4.7 miles “The trail fills a gap in our active transportation system, pro- through Tualatin, Durham and Tigard. The new link offers views motes health and wellness, and connects people with nature,” says of the river, trees and an adjacent wetland all while crossing under Tualatin Mayor Lou Ogden. “Thankfully, the ConnectOregon grant Interstate 5. leveraged other funding.”

A public-private partnership that connects 67,000 nearby resi- The project tapped numerous partnerships, including private land dents to jobs and retail, the Tualatin River Greenway Trail provides owners, local businesses, and regional and county funding programs. safe and convenient multimodal access across I-5, a route for which Construction began in summer 2015. The new trail section opened no safe connection previously existed. The trail is a wide bicycle and in February 2016. The project also received an Excellence in Sustain- walking path that meanders through trees, near the river and past ability Award for green infrastructure from the American Planning wetlands, connecting people with nature while enabling easy exercise, Association and the Oregon Recreation and Parks Association’s recreation, wildlife viewing, and a much safer and more relaxing way Design Award, which recognizes superior architectural or landscape to commute. design and design processes for new or renovated parks or facilities.

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ConnectOregon Project Distribution by Mode

Aviation Rail Marine Transit Bike/Ped Multiple Modes

To learn more, please visit www.oregon.gov/ODOT/COMM/Pages/ConnectOregon-Stories.aspx

20 Form No. 734-5079 REV 2/2017