Washington County adopts TV Highway locally preferred alternative for bus rapid transit

The Washington County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on April 22 to adopt the locally preferred alternative for the Tualatin Valley Highway transit and safety project, advancing a bus-rapid-transit corridor between Beaverton Transit Center and downtown Forest Grove.

County staff said the project will convert the corridor to a higher-frequency service with upgraded stations and accessibility features. Erin Wardell, assistant director of the Department of Land Use and Transportation, described the staff presentation and project history and said the corridor was first identified in regional plans and has gone through multiple refinements since 2009. "This was first identified as a priority high capacity corridor in the metro high capacity transit system plan in 02/2009," Wardell said.

The project team told commissioners the refined scope reduced a previous $500 million estimate to about $300 million. Jessica Pels, policy analyst for Land Use and Transportation, summarized funding requests: a proposed $150 million state "starts" grant (described as half the project cost), a separate $50 million lottery bond request to the state, a $30 million request to Metro for regional flexible funds, and other smaller contributions (including $5 million from a carbon reduction program). Pels said project development will require a $25 million commitment to enter Federal Transit Administration project development.

Pels described the LPA as bus rapid transit operating generally along TriMet's existing line 57 alignment with stations at the locations shown in staff exhibits. She cautioned that some station sites, particularly in Cornelius and Forest Grove, "are still under discussion" and subject to refinement.

Commissioners were asked to adopt LPA language that will be forwarded to Metro for inclusion in the regional transportation plan and then to the Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program to enable future federal funding. A motion to adopt the resolution was made and seconded; the board voted 5–0 to approve the locally preferred alternative as described in the staff resolution.

The board and staff noted additional steps before construction, including intergovernmental agreements with TriMet to confirm county roles for the project-development phase and continued legislative and regional funding requests. Wardell and Pels said the jurisdictional agreement would address roles and responsibilities for the current project-development phase only, not final construction commitments.

Commissioners asked for timing clarification about the state funding request; staff responded that the state lottery bond ask is before the Legislature now and that construction funding, if not approved in this cycle, would be pursued in subsequent cycles. The motion passed unanimously, with the chair noting the vote carried 5 to 0.

The board did not transfer any construction commitments during this meeting; adoption of the LPA is the step required to add the project to regional plans and move toward federal project-development milestones.