Adam Kluka, in a Jan. 11 letter, “We need traffic relief,” is correct; we do need more options to travel between Portland and Vancouver. Let’s look at the bigger picture.
Many older members of the community remember plans that were presented in the 1950s and ’60s. It was presented that we would have less displacement and connect major traffic that was traveling to farther destinations, thus freeing up local-access corridors. A bridge was proposed near Ridgefield to cross the Columbia, then to cross Portland’s West Hills and connect into Highway 217 and on to Interstate 5 — basically a straight line north to south.
Obviously we are highly populated now but a route could be developed, starting from I-5, south of Woodland, crossing close to the mouth of the Lewis River to Oregon and joining Highway 30 at the community of McNulty, south of St. Helens. Highway 30 could be widened without much displacement. And near Cornelius Pass a tunnel could be built through the West Hills to Highway 26, with highways 26 and 217 widened to accommodate the additional traffic.
This is a major project in cost and time but, instead of building bridges that only feed into congested areas, plan ahead and open up the whole area.
