The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT’) has a big management problem: huge cost overruns on highway mega-projects. Just three Portland area highway projects—The Interstate Bridge Replacement, the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening and the I-205 Abernethy Bridge have chalked up cost overruns totaling $4.8 billion in just the past five years.| City Observatory
Every time Oregonians are asked to pony up more money for roads, ODOT trots out a report saying that they’re definitely going to improve their management and stop blowing through budgets. And they’re doing it again. In 2025, as Yogi Berra would say, “It’s deja vu all over again.”| City Observatory