Overtures from sensible leadership in Vancouver to the Oregon Legislature assuaged their contempt for the shortsighted local naysayers, and they have agreed to come to the table to pursue the CRC project once more. All good? Anyone who travels across the I-5 Bridge regularly will shout, “It’s about time!” Then came the warning by the local committee that we may be doomed to repeat history. There was a lot of optimism after some of those obstructionists were voted out of office. Unfortunately, there still appears to be some appetite to allow this new initiative to fail.
Can this really be happening again? By any measure of progress, a replacement bridge should have long since been on its way to completion by now. Some of the same legislators already threaten to kill the deal again. They are a bottleneck to progress as much as the outdated I-5 Bridge is a bottleneck to traffic flow in and out of Portland, let alone the entire I-5 corridor.
Any I-5 traveler can plainly see that this situation worsens month by month. A new bridge is long overdue. Failure to deliver one is unacceptable. Excuses are increasingly paltry and pale in comparison to the enormity of the problem. Roll up your sleeves, legislators. Let’s do our civic duty and build this bridge.
