Skip to main content
Much of the graffiti along state-maintained roads in Portland is likely to turn “ODOT Grey” in coming weeks as crews from the Oregon Department of Transportation begin to spend $4 million appropriated by the Legislature in its short session.
ODOT doesn’t clean the graffiti off its roads, bridges and barriers. Instead, it paints over tags with gray paint that (roughly) matches the color of concrete because it’s less expensive. Highway signs must be replaced.
Gov. Tina Kotek hadn’t signed the bill as of press time, but she had asked for the funding after her Portland Central City Task Force recommended it last year.
The money “will bolster livability and beautification in Oregon’s largest city for residents and visitors,” Kotek said in a statement to WW.
The governor wanted (and got) $20 million in total: $4 million for graffiti cleanup; $4 million to clean up camps created by houseless people; and $4 million for litter. The remaining $8 million will be used to construct barriers to deter camping and keep RVs from parking near bridges, retaining walls and bike paths.
All of the money will be spent in ODOT Region 1 (most of the tri-county area and Hood River County). The department is desperate for the graffiti money, as the endless tags along Interstates 5 and 84 show.
ODOT spokesman Kevin Glenn says the department is ready to deploy the money as soon as it hits, noting that paint crews will be out in force in a matter of weeks. “We have things ready to go,” Glenn says.
In her statement, Kotek thanked the Legislature for “heeding the call from the Portland Central City Task Force to invest $20 million in graffiti abatement and trash clean up within the central city.”