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Bridge planners look to lessen impact on island

Cost concerns may lead to bulky barrier through community

By Erik Robinson
Published: June 12, 2010, 12:00am

Hoping to lessen the proposed Columbia River Crossing’s hulking footprint across Hayden Island, an advisory committee mulled two broad alternatives Friday.

One would excise the interchange from the island altogether, connecting motorists via two smaller arterial bridges from the south.

o What: A chance for the public to testify on a series of possible alternatives for accessing Hayden Island with a new Columbia River Crossing.

o When: 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday. A presentation will begin at 6 p.m., followed by public testimony at 6:15 p.m.

o What: A chance for the public to testify on a series of possible alternatives for accessing Hayden Island with a new Columbia River Crossing.

o When: 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday. A presentation will begin at 6 p.m., followed by public testimony at 6:15 p.m.

o Where: Jantzen Beach SuperCenter, Community Room.

o Where: Jantzen Beach SuperCenter, Community Room.

The other would slim freeway lanes through the island with a smaller single interchange.

However, in trying to mollify 3,000 island residents with a smaller freeway, either of the options would be likely to add costs to a multibillion-dollar project generating plenty of sticker shock as it is.

Engineers slimmed down the project in November, trimming $650 million from a project currently estimated to cost $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion. About $355 million of that trim was on the Oregon side, partly from carrying I-5 across the island on fill rather than an elevated span.

Planners anticipate that the funding burden will be split three ways, among the federal government, the two states and bridge tolls.

Costs could be “significant” to add new arterial bridges across the north Portland Harbor, or to add braided ramps around Marine Drive, said Don Wagner, co-director of the crossing project.

“There could be as much as 20 to 25 percent more structure than the refined (locally preferred alternative),” Wagner said during a Friday meeting of the Project Sponsors Council at the Washington Department of Transportation in Vancouver.

It’s not clear how a potential redesign would affect the timing of the project or the extent of the new engineering or environmental impact studies that would be necessary.

Planners are pushing to finalize the project by the end of this year, in time to include the project in a new six-year federal transportation bill.

“To stay on schedule, we’d have to have all this work finished by the end of summer,” Wagner said.

The overall project would replace the two existing three-lane drawbridges across the Columbia River with 10 lanes, revamp seven interchanges along four miles of freeway, and extend Portland’s light rail transit system into downtown Vancouver.

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