Orange Line Stop

From DJCoregon.com, "For new locomotive facility, site is a real squeeze"

...After ORHF agreed to swap sites with TriMet for a new site beneath the Martin Luther King Jr. viaduct, Kim Knox of Shiels Obletz Johnsen had to make sure everything would fit. The three-acre site is sandwiched between a planned east-side streetcar line and the future Portland-to-Milwaukie light-rail line. The site also will need to accommodate the turntable, a 19,000-to-20,000-square-foot maintenance building and an interpretive facility.

“Our investigation so far has been to see if we can fit a maintenance structure on the site and if there’s room left over for the turntable and a public interpretive facility,” Knox said.

Hennebery Eddy Architects has completed pre-development design for the site, and in January will begin design of the maintenance facility. Principal Tim Eddy says that while certain elements at the site – such as light-rail and streetcar tracks – will benefit the facility in the future, planning around them involves a lot of moving parts.

“The site is a triangle, and getting all the pieces to fit is a challenge,” Eddy said. “It sits in the middle of lots of infrastructure. There are active rail lines on all sides. We’re trying to provide the ability to move the locomotives on the turntable with their turning radius constraints.”

Because financing for the $3.5 million facility has not been secured yet, McCormack says the plan is for a phased development. The new maintenance building is considered the most pressing need. The ORHF needs to have its engines and related equipment relocated by January 2012 so that Union Pacific can redevelop that site.

“This is not a good climate to ask for money, and I think that raising the money will be the biggest challenge,” McCormack said. “The most immediate need is a building to move the engines to. We don’t want them open to vandals and the elements.”

After the maintenance facility is constructed, the plan is to build an interpretive facility on the site. First, Eddy plans to design a visibility element for the maintenance building so that the public can check out the locomotives.

“We want the opportunity for people to know what’s going on,” Eddy said. “We’re working with ORHF on how the public can do that before the interpretive facility is constructed. This facility will be far more visible and accessible than the original.”

Construction on the project will begin in mid-2011.

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From Oregonlive.com, "Portland's locomotives will get new $3.5 million home"

....The Portland City Council last week lent a helping hand. The council agreed to allow the Parks and Recreation Bureau to lend the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation up to $1 million to secure a piece of property with the understanding that the loan will be paid back with interest. Money for the new roundhouse, estimated at $3.5 million, will be raised by private donations....

The foundation has been negotiating with the railroad for about four years on land near OMSI and was close to closing on the property when TriMet decided it needed the land for the planned eastside streetcar line. The transit agency and the foundation worked out a straight trade.