On Oct. 5, I read the latest Interstate 5 Bridge article wondering why there was no mention of the federal infrastructure bill that will eventually pass the House of Representatives and President Biden will sign into law.
The article mentions the probability of tolls being added to help pay the costs of construction. How about Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler and our U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray work their tails off to procure as much federal funds as they can, considering Interstate 5 is a federal interstate highway? The current bridge lifting fiasco is totally untenable.
Why the new infrastructure bill has not and is not being considered in the future cost planning seems awfully strange and shortsighted to me. I would think that tolling would be totally unneeded if we can get part of the $110 billion that is allocated for bridges and roads that is in the bill. If none of those funds would be available for this project it would be awfully strange indeed, because replacing the bridge is exactly what the infrastructure bill is for.
