In Our View: Fewer Cooks

Many attributes make Interstate 205 in Clark County special, but one of the greatest is this: None of those 10 miles is in Oregon. That might sound a little simplistic, but it helps describe why many freeway improvements in east Vancouver are not drawing as much public attention, controversy and headlines as the Interstate 5 Bridge replacement project. The Columbia River Crossing requires the cooperation of multiple levels of transportation planners and public agencies involving aviation, ports, freight and passenger railroads, as well as politicians in two states, two counties and two cities. Managing those disparate interests often makes cat herding look easy.

By contrast, the Clark County portion of Interstate 205 is easier and quicker to study and plan improvements. As Erik Robinson reported in the print edition of Sunday’s Columbian, a $23 million project was completed this year at I-205 and Mill Plain Boulevard, and other enhancements are on the drawing boards. No bistate commission is necessary, only the vision, expertise and outreach efforts of a few groups, primarily the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council and the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Of course, many of the funding challenges that are difficult under the best of circumstances have worsened during the Great Recession. But with less government involved (and fewer politicians’ re-electability at stake), progress on I-205 is easier to enact than on the I-5 bridge.

The most recent I-205 project provides at least two significant advantages at Mill Plain Boulevard. Northbound I-205 motorists now have direct access to 112th Avenue (without having to negotiate the county’s busiest intersection at Mill Plain and Chkalov Drive). And Mill Plain motorists now have a 1,100-foot-long ramp that carries them to northbound I-205.

And more projects are on the drawing board for the freeway in east Vancouver.

A second phase of the Mill Plain project will begin in 2014, resulting in a longer ramp that will feed into interchanges at 18th and 28th streets. Also, later this year, county-level work will begin on one of the largest infrastructure projects ever in Clark County, a $140 million state project at the Salmon Creek confluence of I-205 and I-5. That effort, scheduled for completion in 2014, will result in an eastward extension of 139th Street (behind Fred Meyer) to a new overpass across I-5.

Long-term I-205 plans include improvements at Padden Parkway, possibly between 2016 and 2025. At a cost of $220 million, that interchange will be rebuilt and freeway lanes will be added between Padden and state Highway 500. Also, engineers are studying ways to expedite freeway access at state Highway 500. In the ultra-distant future, and closer to the Columbia River, “braided ramp” separations between state Highway 14 and Mill Plain could be built between 2020 and 2030.

As Robinson pointed out, many people questioned the need for Interstate 205 when it was built 30 years ago in what at the time was a relatively remote area of the county. The rapid expansion of the Cascade Park area has proved the wisdom of those planners. Overall, I-205 is a 37-mile bypass from Tualatin, Ore., to Salmon Creek. Fortunately, the improvements in Clark County are not held hostage to the desires and advice of multiple interests in Oregon.

As for the Columbia River Crossing, well, it is what it is. The necessity of a complex consensus is created by the bridge over a shared state line. But on I-205 between the river and Salmon Creek, it’s refreshing to see progress unfolding at a relatively brisk pace.