Last month, before all southbound lanes of Interstate 5 near the Rose Quarter closed for construction and repairs, transportation officials’ traffic predictions were abysmal. Commutes through the area were expected to double, or even triple, if driver behavior stayed the same.

But drivers’ habits have appeared to change — at least a little.

Now, about halfway into the five-week closure, Portland’s worst traffic predictions haven’t fully materialized, as crews work 24 hours a day to replace old concrete and make the 2-mile stretch of road more earthquake-ready.

Oregon Department of Transportation spokesperson Rose Gerber said traffic times are roughly two times longer than normal. However, the worst congestion has largely been confined to neighborhood streets — not highways — near the Rose Quarter, clustering on Greeley Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Going Street and Interstate Avenue.

Portland Bureau of Transportation spokesperson Hannah Schafer said the agency’s traffic engineers have noticed stabilizing traffic conditions over the last two weeks. That means traffic levels — while higher than normal — haven’t risen or fallen dramatically in that time.

“This tells us that people have adjusted their routines” and are settling into the “new normal,” Schafer said in an email.

Those adjustments point, in part, to more people using public transit. TriMet spokesperson Tyler Graf said the agency saw more than 18,000 trips on the MAX Yellow Line during the first week of the closure.

“That is a pretty healthy boost in ridership,” he said.

Graf said there have also been more transfers at the Parkrose Transit Center, where riders who take Vancouver, Washington’s public transit system, C-Tran, can board the MAX Red Line into downtown Portland.

According to Gerber, construction is due to finish on Oct. 16, on pace with the original timeline for the project. That’s due to favorable weather and minimal disruptions to the round-the-clock construction.

However, Gerber said the process of fully opening the road may stretch into the following day.

“There are a lot of moving parts — different ramps that will have to be gradually opened, striping that will have to happen on the new pavement along the way,” Gerber said.

The agency will share more information as the end date nears.

“We’d like to remind the public that this is a marathon, not a sprint,” Gerber said, and encouraged drivers to still budget extra time to get to their destinations.

A similar project is expected to take place on all northbound lanes of I-5 next year.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/05/i-5-traffic-portland-oregon-transportation-interstate/