Wanna buy a bridge for $2 billion?

Yes, $2 billion. That’s the estimated cost of a new bridge over the Columbia River between Portland and Vancouver. According to an excellent summary of a Coalition for a Livable Future (CLF) forum on the topic, that works out to $1,000 for you, $1,000 for me, and $1,000 for every current resident of the region. That’s a lot of money, especially when children have no place to walk to school safely in many parts of Portland.

From the CLF notes:

[Columbia River Crossing project] staff thinks that we should have a large multimodal bridge that will replace the existing smaller bridges. They recommend a new bridge with 10-12 lanes for motor vehicles, plus either Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or Light Rail, as well as facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. They feel that the old bridge should be removed completely. While a large number of trips are local, they believe that an arterial bridge would do little to reduce demand on existing I-5 bridges because most traffic is traveling further than just across the river.

Really? It’s been about four years since the initial bi-state project committee sent its recommendations to area elected officials, in Portland via the Planning Commission during my time serving. Then, the trip data in the record showed a large proportion of traffic across the I-5 bridge is local, beginning and ending journeys within five miles of the river. The Planning Commission asked Council to press Metro to consider the proposal in the context of prioritizing other area transportation needs. My feeling at the time was that the $2 billion bridge was already a done deal. Politicians see federal money as free money, and they want to be associated with big projects to leave their legacy as well as to provide good construction jobs.

But federal money is not free money. It’s all taxpayers’ money.

$12m in federal money has already been spent on this project for “preliminary engineering”, secured proudly by Washington Rep. Brian Baird (who did a nice job in his Better Know a District appearance on The Colbert Report last week). Before the region commits to spending the rest, we should stop and ask if we can really afford it. And even if so, if that is the best use for $2b in transportation money.

I’m very supportive of making freight transit more efficient. Very favorable to providing local access to services and connections to the river for residents of North Portland. Making it easier for people to commute to Portland from their tax-haven in Washington …. not so much. Building a new 10-lane bridge and demolishing the old one seems completely over the top. Remember 1997, when the bridge was closed for $2.8 million in repairs? We managed pretty well without it, then.

There are two upcoming “Open Houses” where you can find out more and voice your opinion:

Thursday, January 25, 2007 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs (OAME) 4134 N Vancouver Ave. (at Skidmore St.) Portland, TriMet Bus #40 Mocks Crest

Tuesday, January 30, 2007 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Across from Hayden Island Safeway 12050 N. Jantzen Dr. Portland, TriMet Bus #6 M.L. King Jr Blvd

You can also learn more about the official recommendations at the
project’s web site, and send them comments here. Citizens’ open forum on Portland Transport.