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Sponsors still back new bridge

Letter over concerns about project spurs council discussion

By Erik Robinson
Published: January 23, 2010, 12:00am

A tenuous consensus held together Friday over the much-maligned Columbia River Crossing, despite lingering reservations expressed by political leaders on both sides of the river.

The bistate crossing’s project sponsors council met for the first time since four of its members sent a letter Tuesday declaring their general support for a new Interstate 5 bridge — but that the project is “unacceptable” as currently designed.

The letter to the two states’ governors was sent by Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart and Portland-area Metro Council President David Bragdon. The letter is significant in light of fraying support for a $4 billion project.

Matthew Garrett, Oregon’s transportation director, said he was actually encouraged.

“I take it in the spirit of partnership,” he said after the meeting in Vancouver. “Let’s bring fresh eyes to either validate or course-correct.”

Leavitt, who defeated former Mayor Royce Pollard last fall after campaigning against tolls on the new bridge, said after Friday’s meeting that funding for the multibillion-dollar project “is still very, very fluid.” As alternatives to tolls, he raised the possibility of raising property taxes by forming a regional transportation benefit district, increasing the sales tax, or bumping the gas tax in the four counties of the Portland-Vancouver metro area.

Leavitt reiterated his general support for a new bridge of some sort.

That’s because the “no-build” alternative modeled by engineers shows traffic congestion expanding from four to six hours a day now to 15 hours of congestion by the year 2030. (Engineers define congestion as freeway traffic that moves at 35 mph or less.)

“I’m not sure that’s acceptable to anybody,” Leavitt said.

Indeed, a coalition of more than 200 business groups last week fired off their own letter to Govs. Chris Gregoire and Ted Kulongoski. The Columbia River Crossing Coalition urged the governors to move forward on a project they described as “crucial to the well-being of the entire region.” It was signed by the group’s co-executive directors, former Vancouver state Rep. Bill Fromhold and Portland advertising executive Brian Gard.

The project would replace two existing three-lane drawbridges with a 10- to 12-lane span over the Columbia; improve five miles of freeway, bridges, overpasses and interchanges between state Highway 500 and Portland’s Columbia Boulevard; and extend light rail through downtown Vancouver.

The four elected officials expressed support for the bridge, with the following caveats:

• Performance targets should be used to guide the design of the bridge and manage traffic after construction.

• There should be a financing plan that protects “local taxpayers and road users.” The group specified that the “project’s costs are fair, provide high benefit-to-cost, and do not cannibalize funding for other priority projects in the coming decades.”

• Protect the businesses and neighborhood livability of Hayden Island, which could be harmed by recent cost-saving refinements proposed by engineers.

• Independent evaluations, funded by the states, should evaluate everything from growth assumptions about traffic and population, to the effect of the project on the rest of the Portland-Vancouver road system, to the effect of a bigger bridge fueling sprawl.

Stuart said in an interview that he believes the issues can be resolved in time to line up state, federal and local funding for construction to begin in 2012.

“Nothing that we have suggested is a significant time sink,” Stuart said.

Henry Hewitt, the sponsors council’s co-chairman, said a work plan will be formulated over the next couple of weeks to address each of the issues raised by the four elected officials who serve on the sponsors council.

On another note, Hewitt said co-chairman Hal Dengerink, chancellor of Washington State University Vancouver, has resigned due to health reasons. That leaves two vacancies on the 10-member council, both from the Washington side of the river.

Gregoire will have to appoint a replacement for Dengerink and a representative of C-Tran.

Leavitt, a former city councilor who served on C-Tran’s board of directors, previously represented C-Tran on the council. With Leavitt now moving into the seat previously occupied by Pollard, the governor must appoint a new C-Tran representative.

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

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