The Transportation Utility Fee and Road Projects

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2024 and 2025 in review
The road repair program in Newberg accelerated greatly in 2024 and 2025. Following a widespread reform of Engineering and a strong new alliance with Keller Engineering on the design side, we were able to tackle a considerable number of roads projects using a wide range of applications from slurry seals to fog/cape sealing, crack sealing and grind and inlay work*.

In 2024 the majority of 2nd street in districts 1 and 3 were slurry sealed. The parking lots for the whole downtown area were also slurry sealed that year. Other spot locations were ground and inlayed (to include parts of Meridian) and perhaps most significantly a full Lidar scan of the entire city was completed.

In 2025 we did even more:

  • Mountainview Drive is 100% complete on its crack sealing treatment including the northern portion of Springbrook in the vicinity
  • The ADA work (ramps and sidewalk improvements) on S. Center Street were completed
  • Grind and inlay repairs on S. Center Street were completed
  • Slurry seal and Cape seals on S. Howard Street, S. School Street and several blocks of E 3rd Street were accomplished
  • Fulton Street was re-surfaced and re-built to include new Themo plastic markings. This included some full depth reconstruction sections
  • Fulton was repaired via the drag box method by our hardworking maintenance team
  • At the end of the summer the library ADA was also improved with TUF funds and many sidewalk sections downtown on 1st street were replaced or improved
  • Meadow Lane has also been resurfaced ending this summer’s grind and inlay task

Truly your TUF tax dollars were hard at work! 

*Slurry seal is typically a 1" lift of sealing material, whereas cape sealing involves the addition of small size granules to the mix to fill smaller cracks. Grind and inlay involves grinding and reformatting between 2 and 4" of the road surface.

Other Roads Projects - River Street Update
There has been some progress made towards a complete re-build of South River Street a project that will cover two biennia. First the Newberg Urban Renewal Agency (NURA) has accepted the recommendation from their Community Advisory Committee that two sections of River Street would make great candidates for early NURA public improvements.

The next step will be an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between NURA and the City to agree a bond that would be serviced by NURA tax increment funds. While we are awaiting this step our engineering department has started scoping preliminary design options - but actual design and construction work will need to wait until the IGA comes before our city council for a vote.

For the summer of 2026 you can download the street improvement targets by clicking here. You will see that in line with council goals districts 1 and 3 continue to have the focus.

What is TUF (the Transportation Utility Fee)?
The City of Newberg has over 65.5 miles paved streets plus 4 miles of gravel roadways. Roads are the City’s largest asset with a replacement value of $150 million.

In 2016, the condition of the roads ranged from poor ⇔ good. Age and continued deterioration already exceeded the available funds to maintain the aging roads. In 2017, City Council adopted a Transportation Utility Fee (TUF), to generate approximately $1.3 million annually for road maintenance. In 2024 a LiDAR scan of the entire city was conducted to get a more accurate assessment of our pavement condition index (PACER method).

What is the connection between TUF and road repairs?
TUF fund are the primary way that the city pays for street surface improvements and repairs like crack sealing, slurry sealing or grind and inlay surface replacement. Critically most of his work can only be done in warm dry months so that the materials can set properly. This gives us a very short window of time to do these repairs each year.

Please download the TUF Funded Street Repair Selection Procedure to discover the process that goes into choosing the street sections that will be improved each summer.

Current Projects managed by ODOT (Dept. of Transportation)
List of all current projects managed by ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) 
The Newberg-Dundee Bypass with impacts to Hwy219/ Wilsonville Rd/ Wynooski Rd



Waiver of Fees

About Transportation Utility Fee Waivers
Any Person desiring a waiver must submit an application on city forms and be submitted not less than 14 days prior to the billing date of the period for which the waiver be applied. Persons requesting a waiver must document that they meet the criteria and pay any accociated application fee. Only one discount or waiver will be granted at a time for individual properties. Waivers will only be applied prospectively; no retroactive waiver or refund will be issued. Except as set forth below, waivers expire after 12 monthly billing cycles. Those who qualify may reapply within the 60 days prior to the expiration of the waiver.
Types of TUF Waivers

Vacancy Waiver

  1. When any developed property becomes vacant, and water service remains in effect, upon written application of the property owner, the TUF will be billed at the lowest available rate upon the approval of the city manger.
  2. When any developed property becomes vacant, and water service is discontinued, upon written application of the property owner, the TUF will not be billed if all current and outstanding water, sanitary sewer, storm server and transportation utility fee charges have been paid in full.
  3. The city manager is authorized to investigate any developed property for which a fee reduction or waiver application is submitted to verify any of the information contained in the application. 

Hardship Waivers

  1. The responsible party may qualify for a waiver if the person meets the income criteria, which is defined as a household earning less than 80 percent of the HUD median household income in Newberg.
  2. The principal owner of a multi-family residential property may qualify for a waiver if the property is identified as a low income qualified housing identified by the Housing Authority of Yamhill County. 

Unemployment Waiver

  1. An unemployment waiver provides a 6 month waiver to residents who have had the responsible party recently laid off from their job. Evidence of receipt of current unemployment benefits and proof of residency at the service address is required. Residents can reapply for the waiver if still receiving unemployment benefits after six months.

Motor Vehicle Discount

  1. A discount can be obtained for residential class households in which no one owns a motor vehicle. The discount is good for one full year after the discount is approved or until a vehicle is acquired by the household. Residents must demonstrate that each member of the household of driving age does not have a vehicle. Qualifying residents must reapply each year to receive a waiver for the nest 12 months.
Download TUF Waivers

Additional TUF Info

Background of the Transportation Utility Fee
In 2016, the City explored revenue options to improve deteriorating roads. An ad-hoc Advisory Committee was formed with 14 representatives from local businesses, residents, non-profits, the school district, and others who use the roads. The committee met seven times, offered a public open house in person, a public open house online, and made several presentations to community stakeholder groups. The committee explored road conditions, projected costs, current revenue, and how the cost for road maintenance should be balanced through out the city, and ultimately recommended that the City implement a Transportation Utility Fee. This is a fee collected from users of the road system based upon projected trips. The committee also found that additional funding sources will be necessary to catch up and maintain Newberg's growing system of roads and increasing usage. 

City Council reviewed the recommendation and adopted the Transportation Utility Fee (TUF) in May 2017. The TUF will allow the city to provide improved pavement conditions within ten years while research into additional funding sources is ongoing. See the City Council Resolution for more information: RES NO. 2024-3920