WASHINGTON — The in-progress upgrade of Portland International Airport got a brief mention in President Joe Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday night, about ten months after Biden touted the project during a visit to the Rose City.
"Already we've funded over 20,000 projects, including major airports from Boston to Atlanta to Portland," he said Tuesday, talking about the impact of the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill that he signed into law in late 2021.
The collection of Portland airport projects called PDX Next includes a new 392,000-square-foot mass timber roof atop an expanded main terminal, an expanded Concourse B and a new transit hub. The concourse and hub were finished last year, while the roof is scheduled for completion in 2025.
Biden stopped in Portland last April as part of a nationwide tour to promote the infrastructure bill. After viewing the under-construction roof, the president spoke at a hanger with the airport behind him.
He talked about the roof replacement and a separate project that will make upgrade one of the Portland airport's two runways to be seismically resilient, allowing it to remain functional after a major earthquake. He also talked about how the infrastructure bill would improve Oregon's roads and bridges.
The airport and bridge upgrades are some of the most visible local pieces of the bill, but Portland is also hoping to benefit in other ways, such as the city's application for a $600,000 grant to study ways to solve traffic bottlenecks at railroad crossings.
The airport shout-out wasn't the only Pacific Northwest connection at the State of the Union — the event also featured two local guests invited by Reps. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington.