Black History is being made in Oregon with Raimore Construction’s Founder and CEO Jeff Moreland standing at the center. What he has accomplished is as remarkable as it is phenomenal. Raimore Construction has been working in Portland for more than two decades. The firm’s work includes major public transit projects. Raimore has won and/or participated in several of the largest contracts by a minority firm in Oregon.
Raimore is part of the team behind the Interstate 5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project, a plan to widen 1.8 miles of Interstate 5 between Interstate 405 to the north and the Morrison Bridge exit to the south. Experts are stating that the project will improve community connections by redesigning overpasses and reconnecting neighborhood streets. In a style that has become a Portland standard, public spaces will be enhanced. But many are looking at how it will promote economic development opportunities as stated by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).
And then there is the focus on diversity and inclusion of the historically ignored. Raimore Construction has been exceptional in bringing on and working with minority-owned subcontractors and workers – unmatched in history within the state. Raimore Construction can do the work and has the history to prove it. The company was the prime contractor on TriMet’s Division Transit Project. The TriMet Division Transit Project was the largest contract ever to be awarded to a certified DBE in Oregon.
Prime contractors are able to hire subcontractors to do work on major projects. Often big contractors make big promises to use minority contractors but not live up to those commitments once the contract is awarded. Raimore Construction under Jeff’s leadership has been the exact opposite. For the much talked about I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project ODOT took a new approach to awarding a construction manager/general contractor contract. The Resource Scholars Show did two important special broadcasts about this process and the ideas sorrounding it. Black radio station KBMS radio has been running a community forum on Sundays around the I-5 Project and Building Black Wealth. ODOT worked through various former barriers and implemented ideas that are working.
The construction manager was brought on board early in the design phase and ODOT developed contractor specifications directly from community input. The State agency included a provision that the proposers meet a goal of 18 to 22 percent use of DBEs, a 20 percent goal for apprenticeships, 25 percent minority male and 14 percent female workers.
The $16 billion infrastructure plan going through the Legislature now will include $1 billion for a new Interstate Bridge. The Interstate Bridge is an economically impactful bridge for Oregon, Washington as well as for goods that go across the country. It is the only continuous north-south interstate on the West Coast between Mexico and Canada.
It costs on average $1 million each year to maintain the bridge structures that are now over 100 years old. Both Washington and Oregon are looking to replace the aging Interstate Bridge across the Columbia River with a modern structure that provides improved mobility for travelers as well as for goods and services.
The dynamics of having a company that is Black-owned and operated in a state with a small minority population in general and an even smaller Black population specifically is noteworthy. The issues surrounding race, economics and crime in Black communities are often overlooked or marginalized. Black contractors all over the country have raised their voices for years on the lack of diversity and inclusion when it comes to major state contracts. And, here is Raimore Construction making history in the state of Oregon. That attests to the leadership and vision of the company’s founder and CEO, Jeff Moreland.
