Vancouver development lawyer Stephen Horenstein, an avowed proponent of building a new Interstate 5 Bridge, has been tapped by Gov. Chris Gregoire to co-chair a high-level advisory committee on the Columbia River Crossing project.

Gregoire made the appointment this week.

“I’m passionate about getting this bridge rebuilt in a way that does truly add capacity and transit,” Horenstein said Friday. “I happen to be a fan of light rail.”

Now estimated to cost between $2.6 billion and $3.6 billion, the project proposes to replace twin three-lane drawbridges with a 10-lane span across the river, improve four miles of freeway and extend Portland’s light-rail transit system to downtown Vancouver.

Horenstein replaces Hal Dengerink, the Washington State University Vancouver chancellor who resigned from the 10-member Project Sponsors Council this year for health reasons.

The appointment comes at a time of fraying political support for the project on both sides of the river.

Clark County elected officials have raised concern about tolls on the new span, which figures to cost more than $1,000 a year for each commuter who crosses the bridge to work. Across the river, Portland-area elected officials worry about the project’s effect on neighborhoods and the potential to shift congestion from the river south into the center of Portland.

Horenstein acknowledged the controversies, but said he’s up to the task.

“There’s a lot of confusion about this, and a lot of misunderstanding about this, and a few political agendas that aren’t crystal-clear to me,” he said. “I have a great deal of homework to do to get up to speed on the details.”

This is the second time in recent weeks that Gregoire has chosen a project proponent to serve on the advisory panel.

On March 18, she nixed the advice of C-Tran’s board of directors and appointed Vancouver City Councilor Jeanne Harris rather than fellow councilor Jeanne Stewart, a light-rail skeptic.

It fell to Gregoire to re-appoint Washington members of the bistate panel, which had been without Dengerink and former Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard, who was defeated by Tim Leavitt in his mayoral re-election campaign in November. (Leavitt, previously a city councilor, was already serving on the sponsors council as C-Tran’s representative.)

Gregoire and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski are pushing to wrap up project planning and design, two decades in the works, by the end of this year.

Horenstein, who will serve as co-chairman with Portland attorney Henry Hewitt, agrees.

“This project’s gone on a long time,” he said. “Projects that go too long tend to fail of their own weight. We can’t let that happen here. This is the most important project in this community since Interstate 5 was built.”

In addition to Horenstein, Hewitt, Leavitt and Harris, the Project Sponsors Council members are Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Washington Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond, Oregon Transportation Director Matthew Garrett, Portland-area Metro Council President David Bragdon, TriMet executive director Fred Hansen and Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart.

Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551, or erik.robinson@columbian.com.

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