On Sept. 12, TriMet opened its new Green Line to the public. The Green Line is a positive asset to TriMet covering the area from Clackamas Town Center to Portland State University.
TriMet’s Green Line is beneficial to not just the people who ride it, but to everyone. The line was environmentally conscious during construction and continues to be so now that it is running. Not only does it create more public transportation for commuters and makes the City of Portland more accessible to those in Clackamas County, but it is also helping to make our world a better and healthier place for all.
With construction, a lot of materials go to waste and it often creates an unhealthy atmosphere. In order to make this project different, TriMet needed to focus on sustainability. According to Trimet’s Web site, they made sure everything possible about this project was environmentally friendly. An example of this was at the Portland Mall, where 30,000 cubic yards of concrete and other materials were reused. Another example is along I-205, where TriMet built almost one mile of new sound walls. For these new sound walls, a product was used that took 9,030 tires from landfills.
Renewable energy would also prove to play a part in the new line. At the Portland Mall’s South Terminus, there will be photovoltaic panels added on to the buildings. The goal of this is to generate more than 50 kilowatts of power through renewable solar energy. The 22 wind turbines that they are planning on adding will provide up to 1,760 watts of additional power. This makes for about 70 percent of the electricity provided by renewable energy sources. The power created by the sources will generate enough to run the LED lights there.
Conserving energy in Clackamas Town Center’s parking garage proved to be a challenge, but not an impossible one. The Energy Trust of Oregon’s New Buildings program has enabled a lighting system that will save 496,958 kilowatt hours per year, which is almost five times the efficiency of a standard code lighting system. That number is equal to the annual average electricity use of 44 U.S. households.
In order to reduce emissions at the Portland Mall, a B20 biodiesel blend, which consists of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel, was used in the construction vehicles. This greatly reduced the emission of carbon dioxide and other toxic compounds into the air. Topsoil was also altered there in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Although there are already three MAX lines that run downtown, the new Green Line enables the heart of Portland to expand to reach Clackamas, Oregon’s third most populous county. TriMet’s Web site further explains that the Green Line expands transit downtown, which means improvement to the Burnside intersections at Fifth and Sixth avenues. As a result, there is an improvement of traffic flow along those two streets.
Another thing that will improve traffic is taking cars off the road, which is what public transportation does. According to TriMet, 17,800 trips were taken on the first weekday after the Green Line opened. TriMet studies predict the Green Line will have approximately 46,500 people boarding daily by 2025, and 84 percent of those are expected to start or end their trips within the I-205 area.
It could be argued that, with construction of a new line, it is not very green to tear stuff up, and most construction projects waste a lot of material. This was clearly not the case with the MAX Green Line. With light rail construction on Fifth and Sixth avenues, it was required to remove approximately 194 trees. Urban Timber Works salvaged several of the removed trees to use as materials for furniture and residential structures. While there were about 537 trees remaining, the project planted 111 more trees along Fifth and Sixth avenues, and 12 more trees at the South Terminus. Along the I-205 corridor, construction removed 630 trees, but more than 1,050 new trees were planted in their place.
“Green Means Go” is the slogan of the new TriMet Green Line. Green clearly proves to be a good thing with the latest addition to the TriMet family. From the beginning of its construction, it has been an excellent addition to Portland. It has created a way for more people to connect to downtown, and has bettered the world we live in by being environmentally aware.