HILLSBORO, Ore. — The MAX Blue Line west of Orenco Station will be closed starting Saturday, March 16, and running through Sunday, March 24, according to TriMet. Shuttle buses will run between Orenco Station and the Hatfield Government Center in Hillsboro during the closure, and the rest of the MAX system will continue running normally.
The closure is necessary for signal system work relating to TriMet's A Better Red project, which requires crews to have unrestricted access to the tracks. Construction on the project has prompted a series of partial MAX system closures over the past year, but TriMet said the upcoming shutdown should be the last of them.
The Better Red project has three main components: rebuilding the Portland International Airport MAX station and adding a second track on the approach, building an additional platform and track for Red Line trains at Gateway Transit Center, and extending the western end of the Red Line out from Beaverton Transit Center to the Fair Complex/Hillsboro Airport station, adding Red Line service at 10 stations currently only served by the Blue Line.
The two east side upgrades are intended to improve on-time performance by getting rid of single-track areas where eastbound and westbound Red Line trains had to take turns passing through. The PDX airport station reopened last fall after a four-month closure, and the new Gateway track and platform opened earlier this month.
The work next week will finish the upgrades necessary to extend the western end of the Red Line, according to TriMet, although the extended service won't roll out until later this summer.