PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The governors of Oregon and Washington plan a press conference Monday aimed at getting the two states off the dime and started on building a replacement for the Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River.
They are expected to decide between a design that’s functional and quick to build and alternatives that would be more appealing visually but might not be so easy to get under way. They’ve been signaling they’ll go for functional and quick.
In February, Govs. John Kitzhaber of Oregon and Chris Gregoire of Washington abandoned a bridge design that their transportation departments spent years and millions of dollars developing. But experts said it was a costly design, and nothing like it had been built to such length.
Their Portland news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m.
