This article, published by the Idaho Business Review, quotes Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: “We have to come to this with some imagination,” Cascadia Center Policy Director Bruce Agnew said at the PNWER conference. He suggested partnerships could be forged with groups like Tourism Idaho and commuter rail systems along the line in Denver and Seattle. The rest of the Read More ›
This article, published by The Seattle Times, mentions Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: Bruce Agnew, policy director at the Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Center, a think tank that studies transportation issues, said the fee has been waived by the Canadian government. He said that Canadian officials are viewing the second daily route as a pilot project that Public Safety Canada will Read More ›
This article, published by Seattle PI, quotes Matt Rosenberg of Discovery Institute: Matt Rosenberg, a senior fellow at Cascadia Center of the Discovery Institute, recently called for managing peak-hour congestion in the central Puget Sound area “by bravely establishing – and soon – a seamless regional system of variably-priced, automated, and ultimately corridor-length tolling on highways and major state routes.” The rest of the Read More ›
This article, published by the Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce, refers to an event put on by the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute: His destination: the opening ceremonies for Cascadia Rail Week, an effort to bring better train service to the region between Vancouver, B.C., and Eugene. The rest of the article can be found here.
This article, published by Seattle PI, mentions Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: South of the border, such “Cascadians” as former Secretary of State Ralph Munro and Bruce Agnew of the Discovery Institute have worked for two decades to bring fast, reliable rail service to the I-5 corridor. The rest of the article can be found here.
This article, published by Oregon Public Broadcasting, quotes Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: Bruce Agnew: “To go faster than that, you have to put more grade separation, overpasses and underpasses into the system. And we’re not there yet. We’re hoping to get about a billion dollars in federal funding which would allow us to go beyond 79 miles per hour Read More ›
This article, published by Seattle PI, mentions the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute: “True” high-speed rail would exceed 150 mph, but the Amtrak Cascades line between Eugene, Ore., and Vancouver, B.C., is more likely to see incremental progress from the current top speed of 79 mph to between 110 and 125 mph (the top potential speed of the current Talgo trains), Cascadia Project rail fellow Ray Read More ›
This article, published by Crosscut, mentions the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute: According to Cascadia’s Matt Rosenberg: Here in the Pacific Northwest, the existing Amtrak Cascades route between Portland and Seattle includes extensions south to Eugene and north to Bellingham, Wash. and Vancouver, B.C. The rest of the article can be found here.
The state legislature has approved a deep bored tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and Cascadia Center was instrumental in educating decision-makers. This recent article highlights our role.
.....As recently as last December, the bored tunnel was dismissed as too expensive by the viaduct project team. But then the Washington State Department of Transportation realized it could build a tunnel with a single bore instead of a double bore, and the cost estimate fell by almost $900 million. “It's less labor, less materials, one machine versus two,” said John White, viaduct program director for WSDOT.
...Last year two 51-foot diameter tunnels were built in Shanghai, China, according to a report by Arup that was commissioned by the Cascadia Center, which is part of the Discovery Institute. A forceful advocate for the bored tunnel, Cascadia paid Arup $35,000 for that report, according to Cascadia's policy director, Bruce Agnew. In early December, while the viaduct project team was eliminating the bored tunnel from its list of possibilities to replace the viaduct, Cascadia brought together a group of tunneling experts who wrote a letter to WSDOT saying its cost estimates for the bored tunnel were too high. The group wrote to WSDOT Deputy Secretary David Dye and said a bored tunnel could be “completed in the 60 months period with a price of $2 billion or less.” That letter was authored by Richard Prust of Arup, Vladimir Khazak of HNTB, Dick Robbins of the Robbins Co., independent consultant Kern Jacobson and Gerhard Sauer of the Sauer Corp.
(Full article)
More info.:
Cascadia's Bruce Agnew Discusses Tunnel Approval, & Cost Issues, KIRO-FM 97.3, Dave Ross Show, 4/28/09
Cascadia's Bruce Agnew Interviewed On Tunnel Decision, KOMO 1000 AM, Seattle, 4/23/09