Latest I-5 Bridge Proposal

There are some good things about the latest plan for a new I-5 bridge from Portland to Vancouver. It would cost 600-million dollars less than the original proposal. It would shrink from twelve lanes to ten, thus not being as much of an inducement to increased traffic and sprawl. It would include a light rail line, and the estimated decrease in congestion and increase in safety over a no-build option would not change much.

Still, at three billion dollars-plus, the new plan is too expensive and would take away from other needed transportation projects in the area. And for what result? One example, the morning rush hour commute from 179th Street in Clark County to I-84 would be five minutes faster than if nothing was done.

The proposal also bases its 30-percent increase in traffic estimate on a predicted one million person population increase in the Metro area over the next 20 years. That sounds high to us because Portland will need to create lots of jobs to lure that number of people and we don't have nearly enough jobs for the people who are already here.

It also asumes that the number of people who live in Clark County and commute to Oregon will grow proportionately, but economist Joe Cortright predicts that in the future more Clark County residents will be getting jobs in Clark County. And plans for a new bridge began to be developed when global warming was not seen as such a serious problem so its goals don't include a significant decrease in global warming emissions.

What to do? We tend to agree with the Coalition for a Livable Future Things that should be explored include reusing the existing bridges, adding a local non-I-5 bridge, and new or improved H-O-V lanes--after all, three quarters of the cars that use the Interstate Bridge carry one person. In other words, even though the process has been a long one, we should take a fresh look at the problem.