Project Overview

Oregon & Washington are reviving the old CRC project under a new name Interstate Bridge Replacement Program re-using the “purpose and need statement” from the CRC.

The Purpose And Need Statement sets the direction of the project and its re-use suggests that the IBR will follow the same path to a very expensive project including light rail and tolls.

Since the CRC failed partly because of the cost and light rail opposition, it is instructive to look at an alternative that would keep the cost down:

A Lower Cost Option

The CRC FEIS estimated the highway bridge pair would cost $744 million in one CRC option. Add in connections at both ends, and it should be under one billion. If the FHA pays 50%, that leaves $500 million to split between Oregon & Washington. Considering that they wasted ½ of that amount on the CRC, they ought to be able to pay this amount for a toll free bridge.

When light rail is included, the cost increases dramatically. Last time, not having money for the local match, they decided to use road tolls as a substitute for the local match, but the money required was massive, so the project was expanded to the point that the tolls would be large enough to serve as the local match for rail. As far as we can tell, no one ever got the federal transit agency to agree with this scheme.

That expansion included non-essential elements, that could be sequenced over the years. These elements included rebuilding most intersections North and South of the Bridge, a major reconstruction at Hayden Island and, of course, light rail. Here are two concepts that potentially would have saved money to the point of NOT NEEDING TOLLS.