Carbs, caffeine and the Interstate 5 Bridge consumed U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s Tuesday morning in Vancouver.
Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, renowned pie baker and expert in “cobbler diplomacy,” presented the secretary with two pies: key lime and huckleberry. One pie depicted the I-5 Bridge with its lift span up and the other with it down.
The pies were a “thank you” for the $600 million federal grant bestowed to the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, McEnerny-Ogle insisted — as opposed to a sweetener for a $1.5 billion federal grant she and bridge replacement officials are eagerly awaiting word on.
Buttigieg ate a slice Tuesday before touring the bridge and waterfront, McEnerny-Ogle said.
It’s not the first time McEnerny-Ogle has baked a pie for Buttigieg. She tried to present him with one before the $600 million Mega Grant was awarded, but his staff did not let her while it was outstanding.
Buttigieg spent 24 hours in the Vancouver area primarily focused on promoting the federal investment to replace the bridge.
“This is one of the largest, most complex and most important transportation projects in the entire country,” Buttigieg said. “It’s also an example of a project that has been needed for a long time but just couldn’t get done before; it came heartbreakingly close about a decade ago. But right now, it is just too large and too complex for traditional funding mechanisms.”
Bridge replacement program officials have now secured $4 billion for a project estimated to cost about $6 billion — although estimates range between $5 billion and $7.5 billion and costs are expected to rise. The remaining money is anticipated to come from two other federal grants.
“We’re in a season of cost escalations. We know that that’s happening (and) affecting infrastructure across the country,” Buttigieg said. “We also know therefore that these things aren’t going to get any cheaper, and it’s part of why we have a sense of urgency about getting this done.”
Buttigieg was joined near the bridge by local and state officials, including Washington and Oregon Govs. Jay Inslee and Tina Kotek; leaders of the Washington and Oregon state departments of transportation, Roger Millar and Kris Strickler; and officials from all eight local partner agencies.
The Mega Grant is a relatively new stream of funding passed as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law. Washington’s two U.S. senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, helped author, pass and fund the law. In January, they toured the bridge and touted the federal investment in Vancouver.
In addition to the Mega Grant, replacement program officials have applied for $1.5 billion from the Federal Highway Administration’s Bridge Investment Program, also created as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law. They are also looking to receive $1 billion from the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant program.
Buttigieg declined to comment on any outstanding grants.
The $600 million Mega Grant award is more than double what the largest recipients of last year’s award received: $292 million to the Hudson Yards Project in New York and $250 million for the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project, which will build a companion Brent Spence Bridge between Ohio and Kentucky.
