SALEM, Ore. — The push for a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River is headed toward a collision course in the Oregon Legislature.
Gov. John Kitzhaber and House Speaker Tina Kotek are continuing their aggressive push for the project. But Senate President Peter Courtney insists that the skeptical Washington Legislature back the project too, not just Gov. Jay Inslee.
“The project is too important for the state not to try and continue the conversation with the information we now have,” Kotek, a Portland Democrat, told reporters Thursday at a legislative forum organized by The Associated Press.
Washington’s Senate last year declined to take up the project amid strong opposition to plans to use the new bridge to extend Portland’s light-rail network into Vancouver. Advocates in Oregon are pushing to move ahead anyway, with Oregon bearing all the risk for cost overruns or shortfalls in tolling revenue. Oregon Department of Transportation officials say they can secure necessary permission through intergovernmental agreements with Washington, which wouldn’t require legislative approval in Olympia.