With the help of project partners such as Raimore Construction, its subcontractors and minority-owned businesses, construction of TriMet’s Division Transit Project recently reached approximately 70 percent completion.
Service is expected to begin in the fall of 2022. It will bring a new type of bus service to the 15-mile Division Street Corridor. Running between Gresham and Downtown Portland, it will offer faster, more efficient and more reliable transit.
Riders will benefit from longer buses, all-door boarding, on-board bike storage and special traffic signal technology that lets buses go before cars, speeding up service. These improvements are expected to reduce travel times up to 20 percent.
Just Bucket, a certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE), is a subcontractor for Raimore Construction, LLC, the prime contractor on TriMet’s Division Transit Project. The small firm employs between 17 and 45 people. It performs civil contracting work focused on underground utilities, sidewalk improvements and asphalt paving. The workforce includes people who identify with minority groups including African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans.
“When I work in a transit area, I have a sense of pride,” said Just Bucket President Willie Davis, Jr., who is African American. “There’s been a number of residents who have come up and said, ‘We’re glad to see this. We’re glad to see that you are the owner of this company. We looked upon the work that you’re doing. We like the respect that you’re giving us.’”
Davis, Jr., is following in the footsteps of Raimore Construction President and Owner Jeff Moreland, Sr. With the Division Transit Project, Raimore’s company won the largest contract ever to be awarded to a certified DBE in Oregon.
Now poised to graduate from the DBE certification program, Moreland, Sr., says Raimore’s mission is to help other minority-owned businesses achieve their full potential.
“At this point, we’re looking at who is the next Raimore, who is the next person we can help build up. That’s a big, important thing for us–helping people reach this level,” said Moreland, Sr. “We started out with one truck, so if we can do it, anybody can do it. Hopefully, we inspire people.”
Val Solorzano owns C.O.A.T. Flagging, another minority-owned contractor that Raimore brought on to help complete the Division Transit Project. C.O.A.T. provides traffic control and safety services around work zones. The woman-owned business, based in Southeast Portland, employs between 40 and 80 people, depending on the job. Approximately half of the workforce is women.
Solorzano says she’s watched Raimore for some 15 years and learned everything she could from the company.
“I met Raimore on the Portland Transit Mall project. I watched him grow,” remembered Solorzano. “The larger projects started working with him, growing him and teaching him all of the things he needed to do to become the big GC (General Contractor) that he is today. I hope I get that chance.”
Solorzano’s dad worked as a bus operator when she was growing up. She says that for her, working on the Division Transit Project is personal.
Davis, Jr. shares the sentiment. He recognizes the benefits DBEs bring to communities in ways that go beyond the physical work.
“I’ve had so many people come up to me and say how proud of what they’re seeing, and they wish they could see more of it,” said Davis, Jr.
To date, nearly 36 percent of the project construction and 22 percent of project design has been awarded to DBE firms.
