I-505 opponents score with potshots at highway officials on first day of trial

Attorneys for plaintiffs suing to halt construction of the I-505 freeway through Northwest Portland kept defendants off balance Thursday, the first day of trial in U.S. District Count.

Appearing before Judge Alfred T. Goodwin, Nick Chaivoe, attorney for the Plaintiffs, contended that highway officials failed to hold public corridor hearings and have violated federal environmental requirements in failing to study alternate routes, and added that west bound off ramps under construction from the Fremont Bridge have predetermined the freeway corridor.

Under consideration is a freeway west from the Fremont Bridge to NW St. Helens Road, through a corridor between NW Thurman and Vaughn streets. Some 350 Northwest residents would be displaced by the freeway, and others anticipate increased air and sound pollution.

Highway officials maintain, however, that corridor hearings were held in 1964, that environmental impact studies are now under way, and that off ramps, actually part of I-405, the Stadium Freeway, will reach the ground at NW 21st Avenue and do not predetermine the corridor.

Chaivoe said environmental impact studies now would be a “sham,” stating, “You’ve already decided which way you’re going to go. The ramps are already near the ground and you can’t come back in 6 months and change them.”

Chaivoe asked Judge Goodwin for a temporary restraining order on ramp construction until the trial is continued Oct. 20, but was turned down. A similar request was refused earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Gus J. Solomon.

Witnesses for the plaintiffs testified that the corridor would have great social and economic impact, and expressed concern for those displaced from their homes.

Defense attorney Leonard I. Lindas asked George Sheldon, president of the Northwest District Association (NWDA), if it wasn’t true that residents had requested the corridor as a buffer between industrial and residential areas.

Sheldon said that was the the case before last summer. But he said the philosophy of the group had changed, with the NWDA joining with the Willamette Heights Neighborhood Association when they found that federal guidelines were being ignored.

Chaivoe nibbled away at defense witness Fred Clayboe, assistant state highway engineer, trapping him one time when he asked: “Have alternates been studied?”

Clayboe replied they had, but was challenged by Chaivoe who read a statement to the contrary out of a document prepared by highway officials.

Defense attorneys then stated, “It appears we’ve made a mistake,” adding quickly, “I guess the alternative is that no freeway be built.”

Chaivoe countered, “It’s alternatives of routes and modes we’re talking about.” He asked Clayboe if the ramps could facilitate routes other than the corridor, and Clayboe replied they could if proper grade and curving were allowed.

Chaivoe then read a statement by former State Highway Engineer Forrest Cooper, in which Cooper was quoted as saying the ramps would determine the I-505 route; that the only feasible corridor would be a straight line with no alternatives. “Is this statement correct, Mr. Clayboe,” he asked. Clayboe said yes.

Clayboe was than asked if the off ramps were temporary, and when he replied they were, Chaivoe said, “Then we don’t need them right now, do we?”

“Yes, we do,” Clayboe replied, “any delay will cost the taxpayers.”

Boring in, Chaivoe asked, “Does the State Highway Division always worry about the taxpayers?”

Clayboe said yes again.