More than a dozen Portland area and Southwest Washington business leaders and politicians sent a letter this week to three U.S. House representatives calling for funding for the Columbia River Crossing.
The letter called on Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer to support the Senate version of surface transportation legislation, which includes funding for Projects of National and Regional Significance.
In it, the writers indicate the difficulty of finding all the money for the $3.5 billion project, which includes a new Interstate 5 Bridge, light rail to Clark College and five miles of highway improvements. The spending plan includes a three-way split between the federal government; Oregon and Washington states; and tolling. The PNRS money would be part of the $400 million to $500 million in discretionary highway spending the project staff is hoping for.
“These ‘mega projects’ are difficult to fund through existing formula programs, which allocate money to states,” the letter reads.”Multi-jurisdictional projects face complex funding issues and have less federal financial assistance programs at their disposal.”
