TriMet is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Westside MAX Blue Line Extension. The project has helped to relieve congestion, develop communities and improve the quality of life for people in the community.
“Extending MAX west to Washington County was the fulfillment of a promise TriMet and local leaders had made decades before, and it set an example for expansions of the MAX system that would come later,” said TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr. “Over the past 25 years, we have been committed to building and maintaining the most efficient and reliable light-rail system possible, taking cars off the road, helping people reach their destinations and supporting the growth of the community.”
For Washington County, the impacts have been monumental.
“To me, the 25th anniversary is really a special milestone. I’ve been able to see… how valuable the Westside expansion of MAX has been to our individual lives, as well as our collective community lives,” said Washington County Chair Kathryn Harrington. “It enabled Downtown Beaverton to further develop, as well as Hillsboro—and not just downtown Hillsboro. In order for us to seek federal funding for the Westside MAX, we had to show that we were offering more housing.”
Planning pays off
TriMet notes that there had been some discussions for the first MAX line to follow the Sunset Highway west in 1979, but instead, funds from the defunct Mount Hood Freeway were transferred to a package of regional transportation priorities that included the Banfield light-rail project, which was completed in 1986. Once done, TriMet says planning began for the Westside extension kicking off in 1988. Then, in November 1990, voters approved Ballot Measure 26-1 by a 3-1 vote, allowing the issuance of bonds to help pay for the project.
During the project’s planning phase, community members had an opportunity to weigh in. As a resident, Washington County Chair Harrington said she attended several of the neighborhood association meetings that occurred to discuss the planning of Westside stations, including Willow Creek and Sunset Transit Center.
Looking back on the project now, she’s proud that it accomplished what planners said it would.
“It has really unlocked a lot of potential,” Harrington said. “It has exceeded people’s (initial) vision. People want to know how future MAX lines will build on the community, with walking and biking access and improved transportation all throughout the area.”
Challenges and solutions underground
The Westside MAX Blue Line Extension’s biggest construction challenge was more than 16 million years old: Rock—metric tons of it—mainly volcanic basalt, had been lying dormant since the Miocene era. Also underground were soft silt deposits that were scattered sporadically, making the earth under the West Hills an inconsistent mix of brittle, mushy and hard.
Before digging could commence, TriMet says engineers had to gather as much information as they could about what to expect. TriMet spent years researching and engineering the Westside tunnel, with geologists drilling 25 test holes up to 300 feet down to sample soil, rock and ground water. These holes, and the bounty of information they produced, acted as the engineers’ eyes, allowing them to produce maps of an underground world no one had ever seen. With this information, engineers chose to give the tunnel curves, allowing miners the best digging conditions possible.
It would take 18 months of blasting and boring to punch three miles through the hillside. Later came construction of the Washington Park MAX Station. It would come to feature art displays referencing the geological history of the location. The agency says the main display, running the length of a wall on the eastbound platform, remains a site of interest today. It’s a long transparent tube containing a core sample. On the wall, the various geological eras are etched, allowing riders to walk along and track the progression of time.
The station would become, and still remains, the deepest subway tunnel in North America. Care and thought were also given to the surface-level plaza, connecting to the Washington Park Zoo, World Forestry Center and Hoyt Arboretum 260 feet above—the equivalent of going to the top of the Umpqua Bank Plaza.
Building boom, boon to economy
In preparing for the Westside MAX Extension, planners chose an alignment that would take trains past undeveloped parcels—most notably in Washington County, but in Portland as well. The end result was the project being a catalyst for $825 million in residential and commercial development. Prominent developments that sprung up include Orenco Station, one of the high-density, mixed-use developments that began planning in conjunction with the Westside MAX Blue Line Extension. It was in addition to the The Round, a civic plaza built around Beaverton Central, Centerpointe, apartments near Beaverton Creek and Stadium Station apartments, near Goose Hollow.
The Westside MAX Blue Line Extension created a more direct and attractive connection between two major employment centers: Downtown Portland on one end of the line and the Silicon Forest on the other. Today, MAX Blue Line serves more riders than any other MAX line, providing around 30,000 trips every weekday. The extension covers 33 miles between the heart of Gresham and Downtown Hillsboro, as well as more ground for riders than any other bus or MAX line, with about 176,000 passenger miles made every day.
MAX extension continues with Better Red
The MAX Red Line was built just a few years after the Westside MAX Blue Line Extension, completed in 2001. TriMet says It fulfilled another longstanding promise to bring light rail to Portland International Airport, part of regional master planning that started in the 1980s. Now, more than two decades after opening, TriMet is working on improvements to the line to make it more efficient and to provide improved service to riders between Portland and Washington County. The project will extend the Red Line 10 stations west, from Beaverton Transit Center to Fair Complex/Hillsboro Airport.
It’s also adding another track and additional infrastructure near Gateway Transit Center and Portland International Airport to improve train movement and keep trains moving throughout the MAX system.
A Better Red is now about 70 percent completed and is scheduled to open in fall 2024.
