I would like to applaud Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, and Rep. Sharon Wylie, D-Vancouver, for their efforts to restart a dialogue regarding the Columbia River crossing. Hopefully politics can be put aside and some progress can be made on both sides of the river.
There are other approaches, possibly as Jim Gish pointed out the need for a new rail bridge in a Feb. 12 letter “Advantages in replacing rail bridge,” and its possibilities. Let’s explore combining both rail and road traffic on the same crossing. There are a number of high bridges in our country that handle both rail and road traffic.
The easiest answer would be to build one more bridge just like what we have now and the middle bridge would reverse direction depending upon time of day.
The other option would be to build a shallow tunnel. Sections could be built then floated into place and sunk into position with little displacement of the community.
If our lawmakers had to cross the Columbia River to get to Olympia we might have had a new crossing already.
