TriMet sues Clackamas County over light rail

Also this week, Willamette Week in Portland reported that an Oregon consultant on the Columbia River Crossing project, Patricia McCaig, may not have properly registered as a Washington business.

PORTLAND — The Portland regional transit agency TriMet has sued Clackamas County over a light-rail project.

The 7.3-mile extension from Portland to Milwaukie, Ore., is a third complete, but county voters last year approved a measure calling for countywide votes on light-rail projects and elected two project opponents to the county board.

TriMet says the county is bound by contracts it signed before those voter actions, but it hasn’t completed property acquisitions or road and signal improvements it agreed to.

The Oregonian reports the line is scheduled to open in early 2015.

The county has scheduled two more countywide votes in May on light-rail questions.

A county spokesman says the suit was a surprise, and the two parties are supposed to go through dispute resolution before going to court.

In Clark County, opponents and supporters of the Columbia River Crossing project have watched the Clackamas County actions unfold. Light rail is perhaps the most controversial portion of the CRC project, at least in Clark County. The project would replace the existing Interstate 5 Bridge, extend MAX light rail across the river to Clark College, and pay for miles of freeway improvements on both sides of the river.