o Engineering: $57.2 million
o Environmental study and reports: $20.6 million
o Project management, controls, reporting and quality assurance: $17.0 million
o Transit planning and preliminary design: $14.6 million
o Public involvement and communications: $8.5 million
o Agency partners and tribes: $5.3 million
o Finance study and reports: $4.5 million
Total planning costs: $127.7 million
Source: Columbia River Crossing
The Columbia River Crossing project proposes to replace the existing drawbridges with 10 lanes over the river, improve Interstate 5 and extend Portland’s light-rail system into downtown Vancouver. See a project timeline, previous stories and links at http://columbian.com/i5bridge.
The initial plan by the Columbia River Crossing to pursue a largely untested and potentially costly bridge design — one that was rejected by Washington and Oregon leaders this year — was a misstep, but not as costly a sidetrack as many might think.
Of the $127.7 million spent as of May 31 on engineering, environmental and other planning costs, crossing data show that just $1.53 million was spent on preliminary designs for an open-web box girder bridge that now cannot be used.
The rest of the planning — including costly geotechnical, drilling and foundation work — still applies to the flat, composite deck-truss style of bridge selected by the governors.