Portland council hears public-works briefing as bureaus outline major projects and steep budget pressures

Portland city officials delivered a wide-ranging public-works briefing to the Portland City Council on Jan. 23, laying out the scale of the city’s transportation, drinking-water and wastewater systems, the near-term projects that are driving planned rate increases, and the limited discretionary funds available for routine maintenance.

The session, presented by Interim Deputy City Administrator Priyatanna Paul and the directors of the three bureaus in the Public Works service area, emphasized that the bureaus together oversee tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure while facing mounting deferred-reinvestment needs. “Public works is a foundational backbone of Portland,” Paul said in opening remarks. “We manage the roads we travel, the water we drink, and the systems that keep our city clean and our environment protected.”

Why it matters: Council members pressed bureau leaders for specifics on day-to-day services—pothole repairs, street cleaning, sidewalk and crosswalk safety—and on long-term solutions for funding and resilience. Presenters said many capital obligations are legally or contractually required, leaving only a small portion of each bureau’s budget flexible for operations, maintenance and discretionary projects.

Most important facts

- Scale and money: Paul and bureau directors said the combined public-works service area manages infrastructure assets measured in the tens of billions of dollars (the briefing cited figures such as more than $60 billion in combined assets) and a combined annual budget of roughly $2 billion. PBOT was described as responsible for about $21 billion in transportation assets; the Water Bureau said it manages about $25 billion in drinking-water assets; BES gave a similar replacement-value figure for its system and identified a growing reinvestment backlog valued at $6.7 billion.

- Funding sources and limits: Leaders said roughly 90% of the Water Bureau and Bureau of Environmental Services revenues come from utility billing (combined water, sewer and stormwater bills), while PBOT relies heavily on restricted federal and state grants plus gas-tax and parking revenues. The bureaus noted that most income is tied to dedicated uses (capital projects, debt service, regulatory compliance), leaving only a small share of each bureau’s budget available for discretionary maintenance or service improvements.

- Projects driving rates: Two large projects were repeatedly cited as key drivers of near-term rate increases: the Water Bureau’s filtration and pipelines project (to meet Safe Drinking Water Act requirements and an Oregon Health Authority compliance agreement) and BES’s Columbia Boulevard “secondary treatment expansion” (STEP) to meet regulatory deadlines. The Water Bureau reported securing low-interest WIFIA loans it said would reduce borrowing costs for ratepayers.

- ‘1 Water’ initiative and integration: The briefing summarized the exploratory “1 Water” review launched in 2024 that recommended stronger collaboration across the three bureaus, a unified strategic plan and an integrated capital improvement plan (CIP). Staff said the city will implement the recommendations over the next 1–5 years, starting with efforts to unify CIP planning to seek efficiencies across projects.

Bureau highlights and operational details

Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT): Director Millicent Williams described PBOT’s responsibilities—5,000 lane miles of pavement, 170,000 street signs, nearly 1,000 signals and more than 450 miles of bikeways—and said PBOT’s discretionary general-transportation revenue has been strained by declining parking and fuel-tax receipts. Williams said PBOT is proposing about $25 million in cuts to its discretionary budget (a roughly 35% cut to the bureau’s discretionary sources) and that over the last six fiscal years PBOT cut about $42 million and drew down a $63 million reserve. She highlighted major 2024 grant wins and capital work (including safety projects, ADA ramps and streetcar and aerial-tram support), while acknowledging that more than half of the city’s pavement is in “poor or worse” condition.

On potholes and pavement prioritization, Williams said PBOT uses reported requests and proactive route assessments to guide repairs, and sometimes performs base repairs rather than quick patching. “If we are filling potholes that means that we're not maintaining the base levels of our pavement across the city,” she said. PBOT and maintenance staff reported filling roughly 15,000 potholes in 2024 at an average cost of about $300 each.

PBOT also described its winter-response operations—56 vehicles equipped for snow and deicer deployments—and noted that roughly three-quarters of PBOT funding is restricted to specific projects. Councilors pushed for more detail on sidewalk gaps and neighborhood maintenance, and asked for district briefings focused on locally prioritized projects.

Portland Water Bureau: Interim Director Edward Campbell reviewed the bureau’s two primary sources—the Bull Run watershed and the Columbia South Shore well field—its century-long source protections and the filtration and pipelines project scheduled to begin filtration by 2027 to meet the bureau’s compliance agreement with the Oregon Health Authority. Campbell said the Bull Run supplies more than 95% of the city’s drinking water annually and that the filtration project is intended to guard against pathogens such as cryptosporidium and to improve seismic and climate resilience. He also noted investments in corrosion-control treatment and the planned rollout of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to allow wireless meter reads and provide customers with near real-time usage data.

Bureau of Environmental Services (BES): Director Dawn Uchiyama (transcript contains a variant of the name early in the briefing) described BES’s combined and separated sewer systems, the Columbia Boulevard wastewater treatment plant’s role (handling tens of millions of gallons daily and up to hundreds of millions on wet days), and the STEP program that added clarifiers and solids-processing capacity to meet a Department of Environmental Quality deadline. Uchiyama emphasized the bureau’s green infrastructure work—green streets, habitat restoration—and said BES completed a major rate-study and rate-structure update in 2024 that the bureau characterized as bringing its approach in line with national best practices. BES also reiterated its role as the city’s agent in the Portland Harbor Superfund effort and said the utility collects ratepayer funds that contribute to Harbor planning and restoration.

Council discussion and requests

Councilors asked for specifics about everyday services and equity: pothole response, street sweeping, sidewalk construction, crosswalk markings and “daylighting” at intersections. Staff acknowledged cuts to routine services: PBOT’s residential street sweeping was suspended effective July 1, 2023, because of budget reductions; street-light restoration and other routine maintenance lines have been constrained by limited discretionary funds. Traffic-engineering staff said the city responds to safety requests through an 823-SAFE intake (also handled via 311) but that response times for non-capital complaints can average 12–16 weeks due to limited staff and funding. City traffic engineer Wendy Collie said higher-investment pedestrian treatments (e.g., flashing beacons or full signals) can cost from roughly $300,000 to more than $1 million depending on the treatment, which constrains placing high-cost treatments at every requested crossing.

Councilors also discussed policy choices that affect long-term funding: system-development charges (SDCs) and whether state law limits the use of certain fees for deferred maintenance; the potential role of state legislation to change SDC flexibility; and whether structural changes such as consolidating rate-funded services under a unified model (the 1 Water recommendations) should be accelerated. Several councilors pressed for briefings and follow-ups on rates, the Montgomery Park streetcar proposal, SDCs, district-level maintenance backlogs and the calculation of how much additional revenue would be required to stabilize pavement conditions citywide.

What councilors and staff asked to receive next

Councilors requested: district briefings on pavement and sidewalk gaps; a deeper financial briefing on utility rates and the Water/BES rate projections; an updated unified-CIP plan or outline of how the 1 Water recommendations will be implemented; details on where residential sweeping and streetlight restorations could be restored and what funding would be required; and a mapping or estimate of how many streets could deteriorate to gravel without additional investment.

Quotes

“Public works is a foundational backbone of Portland,” Priyatanna Paul, interim deputy city administrator for the Public Works service area, said in opening the briefing.

“If we are filling potholes that means that we're not maintaining the base levels of our pavement across the city,” Millicent Williams, director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said when asked about the bureau’s pothole strategy.

“Our primary drinking-water source, the Bull Run, is closed to public entry and protected by robust water-quality protections,” Edward Campbell, interim director of the Portland Water Bureau, said while explaining source protections and the forthcoming filtration project.

“We prioritized our financial and employee resources in the three areas of highest risk: Columbia Boulevard wastewater treatment plant, pump stations, and employee safety and security,” Dawn Uchiyama, director of the Bureau of Environmental Services, said when asked about BES priorities.

Ending

Council leaders closed the session after more than an hour of presentation and questions, directing staff to provide the requested financial and district-level briefings as part of the upcoming budget and committee work. Staff said implementation of the 1 Water recommendations and an integrated CIP are early priorities; councilors signaled they will press for detailed cost estimates and funding options as the city moves into budget deliberations.