City urged to support new bridge with light rail to Clark College
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Vancouver city officials are recommending the city council approve a replacement Interstate 5 bridge that looks something like this. (Columbia River Crossing) |
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
By JEFFREY MIZE, Columbian staff writerBuild a new Interstate 5 bridge, bring light rail across the Columbia River and end the line along the freeway’s east side near Clark College.
Vancouver transportation officials made that recommendation to the city council Monday.
It is believed to be the first time a local government in the Portland-Vancouver region has received a recommendation for what could be a $4.1 billion package of bridge, highway and transit improvements.
“This is not a council position,” said Thayer Rorabaugh, Vancouver’s transportation manager. “(But) we believe this is the direction the city ought to be going.”
The city council took no action Monday. A public hearing tentatively has been scheduled for June 30, with the council scheduled to vote July 7 on what bridge planners call a “locally preferred alternative.”
Rorabaugh and Matt Ransom, city transportation planning manager, raced through a series of reasons for their recommendation during a 45-minute presentation that left little time for questions and no time for council discussion.
Transportation planners will return for a full two-hour work session with the council at 4 p.m. June 2.
Rorabaugh told council members that light rail has the ability to attract more riders than bus rapid transit and would eliminate the need for commuters to transfer at the Expo Center in north Portland, where the current yellow MAX line ends.
City transportation officials settled on the Clark College terminus because it has the lowest construction cost per rider and could be built entirely with Federal Transit Administration dollars, he said. The terminus could be near Interstate 5 at the former visitors center north of Mill Plain Boulevard.
Putting a station there also could provide convenient connections to other high-capacity transit lines — light rail, bus rapid transit, commuter rail, streetcars and maybe even monorails — that would serve other parts of Vancouver and Clark County.
City officials also recommend a two-way couplet for light rail in downtown Vancouver, with northbound trains on Broadway and southbound transit on Washington Street.
Planners believe each street is wide enough to accommodate two-way auto traffic along with a single light-rail track, although some parking would be lost.
A light-rail couplet would bracket Main Street and could encourage retail development along a street that today falls short of its iconic name. It also would allow for more flexible traffic circulation and avoid a perceived 30-foot wide barrier created with side-by-side light-rail tracks.
Transit is only one piece of the Columbia River Crossing project. A draft environmental impact statement released this month evaluates two bridge options: building an entirely new crossing or retaining the existing spans for northbound freeway traffic and erecting a smaller supplemental bridge for southbound traffic.
Vancouver officials rattled off a list of reasons why they believe a replacement bridge is the best option:
- More congestion relief, particularly for northbound freeway traffic.
- Greater overall safety and better river navigation.
- Improved seismic stability and freight mobility because there would no longer be a drawbridge.
- A smaller bridge footprint and the ability for a superior downtown street network.
- A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over a supplemental bridge option because there would be less pollution produced by idling vehicles stuck in traffic.
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