I-84 cleanup to highlight 'How beautiful Portland really is'
Robert Barrie, the owner of Portland Graffiti Removal, said he wants to "try and make Portland beautiful again so we can tell all our families to come to Portland. It's beautiful up here."
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The uncovering more of the natural beauty of Portland for all to enjoy is the main goal of a clean-up of trash and graffiti that is set to take place over the weekend for a 5-mile section of I-84.
Beginning Saturday night at 11 p.m., the closure will impact the entire stretch of I-84 between I-5 and I-205, closing down both lanes until Sunday at noon. Road closures are planned for northbound lanes of I-5 over the Marquam Bridge, with traffic getting rerouted to I-405 northbound.
TriMet will also be disrupted and shuttle buses are planned to be available for riders. I-84 on-ramps, and various bridges over the highway — including the Congressman Earl Blumenauer Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge and the bridges at Northeast 12th, 21st and 28th Avenues — will also see closures.
Anyone who has driven in the area knows the graffiti and trash is hard to miss on the side of the freeway. That's why the agencies involved said they want to be part of the solution.
Robert Barrie, the owner of Portland Graffiti Removal, said he wants to "try and make Portland beautiful again so we can tell all our families to come to Portland. It's beautiful up here."
The Oregon Department of Transportation said more than 100 workers from different agencies are joining in on the effort to make Portland a place people will want to visit.
"It's a massive coordination with all of these different entities to make sure we're all in communication with each other to keep everybody safe," Barrie said.
Since April, Portland Graffiti Removal has been working on cleaning up local highways. But the company said some of the graffiti is just too dangerous to get when cars are flying by them. Barrie said the closure will help keep his crews safe to finish their cleanup.
"We'll have two vans on the eastbound side, two vans on the westbound side, do everything that's ground level that we can't do on a regular basis."
Graffiti isn't the only problem. Metro has already started collecting 10,000 pounds of trash from the Union Pacific Railroad that runs alongside the freeway. More garbage will be picked up this weekend.
"RID patrol crews were out here for three days removing garbage along the railways. They removed anything from you know, food items, textiles, sharps," said Gia Ballash, a Metro spokesperson.
ODOT said they'll also be able to complete some much-needed maintenance work at the same time as the cleanup closure.
"We've got ODOT crews are going to be working on the storm drainage system on lighting, paving," said Don Hamilton, an ODOT spokesperson. "They're going to be doing a lot of work that they can't do when the road is operating when cars are going by 60 miles an hour."
"It makes a big difference for folks who live here or who are visiting to see how beautiful Portland really is," Ballash added. "The natural beauty of the area."