By: Dylan Rivera
Oregonian
April 17, 2008
Original article
A new Interstate 5 bridge is essential to the metro area's economic vitality, the Portland Business Alliance said Wednesday, reinforcing its support for the $4.2 billion project.
During a breakfast panel discussion, the region's leading business group declared transportation its top priority this year and the Columbia River Crossing project its key transportation focus.
Oregon and Washington want to replace or repair the nearly 100-year-old bridge and improve mass transit. The leading alternative would replace the six-lane bridge with a 12-lane crossing, adding light rail and rush-hour toll charges. Six highway interchanges in North Portland and Vancouver also would be rebuilt.
The freight industry considers the bridge the worst bottleneck on Interstate 5 from Mexico to Canada, said Monica Isbell, owner of Starboard Alliance Co., a Portland logistics firm.
"It is imperative that this bottleneck be addressed as soon as possible and in the most effective manner," she said, "not only for the sake of the region but for the entire West Coast."
Business leaders will go to Washington, D.C., next month to lobby the state's congressional delegation on the issue.
Wednesday's panel discussion at The Governor Hotel included two elected officials who generally favor the project: Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder and Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard. Two business alliance members who support the project -- Isbell and Rich Brown, a Bank of America senior vice president -- also participated.
The Coalition for a Livable Future and Metro Councilor Robert Liberty, among the proposal's most vocal critics, were absent.
Skeptics have raised concern about whether the bridge would promote driving and thus increase greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution. They worry that the most expensive public works project ever in the Portland area would sap money from other priorities.
The panel raised many of the questions critics have posed.
Burkholder said the Columbia River Crossing would have minimal impact on the region's production of greenhouse gas emissions. The five-mile stretch is only a small fraction of the region's roadways, he said.
The region would better address climate change by creating neighborhoods that allow residents to get around without driving, he said. "This is a big issue, but it's going to be more about how we design our communities."
Columbia crossing highway forecasters have said traffic would increase from 134,000 cars a day today to 184,000 a day in 2030 without a new bridge. With the project, there would be less traffic -- 178,000 cars a day -- because of light rail and tolls.
The project would bring in federal money for national priority corridors that would not be available to most transportation projects in the Portland area, Burkholder said. In addition, Congress will write a new six-year transportation bill next year. If the region misses an August deadline to apply for federal money, that could delay the project until the next six-year funding bill, he said.
The coming months will bring several key decisions. State highway departments are working on a draft environmental impact statement that's expected to be published in the next month or so. Then eight government agencies, including the Portland and Vancouver city councils and regional transit agencies, will consider whether to endorse a preferred option.
"One turns it down, and it's a dead duck," Pollard said.
Dylan Rivera: 503-221-8532; dylanrivera@news.oregonian.com. For environment news, go to PDX Green
