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News / Business / Clark County Business

Cover for Interstate 5 connecting Fort Vancouver to downtown gets $30M boost

It would create parklike cap connecting historic site, downtown Vancouver

By Shari Phiel, Columbian staff reporter
Published: January 14, 2025, 1:20pm

Plans to put a lid on Interstate 5, or at least a section of it, recently got a $30 million boost.

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, along with Washington’s Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell secured a grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The grant resurrects hopes for a parklike freeway cap connecting the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and downtown, an aspect abandoned in 2013 during the previous iteration of the Interstate 5 replacement effort.

“As we build a new I-5 Bridge that we take pride in, we have the opportunity to safely and durably connect downtown with the historic Fort Vancouver and its surrounding neighborhoods,” Perez said in a news release Monday.

The city of Vancouver, in partnership with the Department of Transportation, will put the money toward constructing a lid over Interstate 5 to connect downtown Vancouver, the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and surrounding neighborhoods.

“This park over I-5 will give people more green space to enjoy and allow visitors and commuters to easily and safely walk or bike right to the new transit options taking them across the river,” Cantwell said.

Perez said she urged the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program to prioritize Southwest Washington bridge users’ concerns in the final project design — both through the cost-effective use of resources to cut tolling and increased vehicular capacity to reduce congestion.

She said she is also working with community stakeholders, holding a roundtable on local priorities and meeting with union members, apprentices and trades students who will work on the project.

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