Search the site

Creating the Southwest Corridor Plan

Planning and conservation  ›  Transportation and land use projects  ›  Southwest Corridor Plan  ›  Creating the plan

Find out the process and timeline for transforming local visions, existing conditions and policies, and your ideas into an implementation strategy that will support and create great communities in the Southwest corridor.

Plan timeline

April 2011 to February 2012	February to October 2012	November  2012 to June 2013 forward
Identify policy framework and existing conditions	Develop wide range of alternatives	Develop shared investment strategies that best meet goals and objectives
Define opportunities and challenges, goals and objectives and evaluation criteria	Narrow wide range of alternatives	Evaluate and prioritize preferred strategy
		Identify commitments and implementation strategy

Timeline updated June 2012.

---

Process

The process flow chart below is interactive, linking to documents of interest that have been published through the plan process. Place your cursor over the link for information; click the link to download the document or go to the page.

Federal register notice

As the federal agency that will guide the Southwest Corridor Transit Alternatives Analysis, the Federal Transit Authority issued a notice in the federal register on Sept. 29, 2011, announcing the Southwest Corridor Plan kickoff.
Download the notice from the U.S. Government Printing Office (PDF)

Find more partner publications in the project library Go

Southwest Corridor Transit Alternatives Analysis

In December 2010, Metro was awarded a $2 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration to analyze alternatives for improving transit in the corridor that includes Barbur Boulevard/Highway 99W and Interstate 5. This transit alternative analysis will be part of a larger transportation plan, which will also examine opportunities for improvements to the roadway, bike, pedestrian and freight networks. Download the grant application (PDF 3.7M)

There has been speculation that the Southwest Corridor Plan could lead to a light rail project in the corridor. Although this is a possibility, this early stage of the process will include asking residents and businesses what they like about their communities, what challenges they face and what should be considered moving forward. Early next year, this wide range of potential solutions will be narrowed down based on how well they meet the needs of, and the local and regional goals for, the corridor. Light rail may be included as a potential solution at that time, but other high capacity solutions, such bus rapid transit, commuter rail or rapid streetcar, or even improved local bus, may also be pursued as well or instead.

The corridor in the vicinity of Barbur Boulevard/Highway 99W was designated in 2009 as the as next regional priority for high capacity transit expansion by the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation and the Metro Council. The corridor, identified as near-term priority under Metro’s Regional High Capacity Transit System Plan, shows the greatest ridership projections for potential high capacity transit corridors in the region. The alternatives analysis will determine what mode of high capacity transit – light rail, commuter rail, rapid streetcar or bus rapid transit – would best meet the future travel needs in the corridor.Find out more about the High Capacity Transit System Plan

Need assistance?

Transportation corridor planning
503-813-7535
trans@oregonmetro.gov