Under the best of circumstances, building the Columbia River Crossing won’t be quick, easy or cheap.
From the first shovelful of dirt to the last drop of yellow lane striping, planners expect it will take seven years and around $3.6 billion to replace the Interstate 5 bridge, improve five miles of freeway and extend Portland’s light rail transit system into Vancouver.
This isn’t the best of times.
The recession-wracked economy adds to the difficulty of raising money from the two states, the federal government and bridge tolls. Bowing to those concerns, Oregon and Washington state transportation leaders last week concurred with an independent panel’s recommendation to consider building the project in phases.
Among the eight-member review panel’s suggestions: Construction of light rail lines could be delayed, instead making do with cheaper bus rapid transit service in the interim. Or the project might consider three bridges across the river rather than two, allowing planners to put off building a second highway span until funding materializes. Rebuilding the interchange at Hayden Island could be delayed.
“As currently envisioned, development of the CRC is counting on full funding from multiple sources, including tolling, which will be new to the community and unproven in its revenue generating potential,” according to the review panel’s report, dated July 27. “Failure to achieve one or more major sources of funding can make the entire project unmanageable or unaffordable in the present.”
Until now, officials have resisted coming up with a Plan B.
State officials point out that, because the project is so closely tied together, it won’t be easy to break it into independent phases. Likewise, planners have been pressing to construct the entire project as soon as possible to avoid driving up the cost of delay.
“If that happens, and you don’t build Marine Drive, for example, for five or seven or 10 years, it’s going to cost more because of inflation,” said Don Wagner, the CRC’s co-director for Washington.
Crossing proponent Ed Barnes, a former member of the Washington Transportation Commission who lives in Vancouver, on Tuesday implored members of a local transportation planning council to reject a phased-in project that will only add costs while delaying benefits.
It also sends exactly the wrong message to state and federal lawmakers, he said
“When you send people to the Olympics, you don’t send them there to win bronze,” Barnes said during the meeting of the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council. “You send them there to win gold.”
Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551, or erik.robinson@columbian.com.
