Washington, Oregon Officials Wrangle Over Lanes, Cost of Interstate 5 Bridge

This story appears in the Sept. 28 print edition of Transport Topics.

After coming to a consensus that a new Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon should have 12 traffic lanes, local officials now have said the plan is too expensive and must be scaled back.

“The project has a price tag that we now know far exceeds likely available funds,” Mayor Sam Adams of Portland, Ore., said in a recent statement outlining his new view of the project. “Our federal legislators have made it clear that we need to scale back the project to win their support.”

Adams was among those who had agreed to the 12-lane option earlier this year.

The price tag for the 12-lane project, which was to include high-speed rail, bicycle lanes and several highway interchange improvements, has grown to $4 billion.

The federal government wants the local jurisdictions to pay most of that cost.

The I-5 corridor is the major freight route linking the Pacific Coast states with Mexico and Canada. Plans for the new crossing, which would replace the six-lane bridge connecting Portland and Vancouver, Wash., included upgrades to give trucks better access to the Port of Portland.

Of the 135,000 vehicles that cross the existing bridge every day, 11,000 are trucks.

From its inception years ago, the Columbia River Crossing, or CRC, project has been hotly debated. Environmental and residential groups want a small-scale project that includes light rail and tolling, while business and transportation interests want a larger project that would promote growth and trade in the Pacific Northwest.

The primary sponsors of the project are the respective Oregon and Washington departments of transportation. The geographic scale of the project, however, means that multiple local government jurisdictions also are involved, which has roiled politics in Portland and Vancouver.

David Bragdon, president of the Metro Council, the Portland area’s regional governing body, said that today the project is further from being built than it was six months ago.

“They’re going to have to make it more realistic and workable,” Bragdon said.

“I think what happened recently,” he said, “is that it’s finally dawned on the two state governments that money is not unlimited, so they’re having to rethink the budget.”

Richard Brandman, Oregon’s director for the project, said CRC engineers are re-examining every element — from interchanges to bridge piers — to determine if costs can be lowered.

CRC has not abandoned the 12-lane plan, but in the current climate of “needing to reduce costs to ensure we have a fundable project, we’re again looking at the number of lanes,” Brandman said.

The local governments are expected to pay for three-fourths of the project’s cost, he said.

According to The Oregonian newspaper, congressmen from the region, U.S. Reps. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) and Peter DeFazio, (D-Ore.) have tried for years to persuade the states to design a less expensive project.

Portland Mayor Adams said in a lengthy statement released on Sept. 17 that any new plan still must include light rail and tolls or he will withdraw his support.

Adams said he had agreed in March to back the 12-lane option because of the promised benefits of the CRC project such as im-proved freight movement, reduced congestion and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

“Without tolls and light rail,” Adams said, “I do not believe these benefits can be achieved.”

Those working on the new crossing say tolls will be needed to pay off construction debt and to maintain the bridge. There are no tolls on the existing bridge.

In addition, on the Portland side of the river there is support for tolls that are high enough to discourage congestion in favor of light-rail use.

That’s not true on the Vancouver side of the river. Washington residents would pay most of the tolls, and some 60,000 of them commute across the river each day to work in Portland.

“I think reasonable people are all agreed that tolls are going to be necessary or else there’s no new bridge,” Brandman said. “But the issue has become somewhat politicized on the Washington side.”

Opposition to tolls has taken center stage in Vancouver city elections. Incumbent Mayor Royce Pollard is facing a challenger calling for no tolls. Pollard said he would support a $2, one-way toll.

Larry Pursley, executive vice president of Washington Trucking Associations, said through a spokeswoman that his group is monitoring the CRC situation.

“We’re years away from funding or building,” the Pursley statement said.

WTA is concerned that roadways get their fair share of funding in a project that also involves pedestrian, transit and bicycle uses, Pursley said.

Bob Russell, president of Oregon Trucking Associations, declined to comment.