DeFazio: I-5 bridge must be smaller

Southern Oregon congressman supports Columbia River Crossing, but says it must be affordable

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Oct 12, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (17 Reader comments)

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.

Courtesy photo

Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio says transportation planners need to scale back the scope and cost of the Columbia River Crossing for the project to attract federal funding.

“What has been designed so far is sort of the optimal project, and we can’t afford that,” DeFazio says of the planned 12-lane, $4.2 billion version of the proposed replacement Interstate 5 bridge between Portland and Vancouver, Wash.

At the same time, DeFazio – who represents the Southern Oregon’s 4th Congressional District and sits on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure – says the project must include a light-rail connection between the two cities and tolls for it to succeed.

“If it doesn’t have tolls, I don’t see any other funding alternative,” DeFazio says. ”But if you don’t give people an alternative to tolls, that’s not fair.”

Settling on a smaller project

During a Monday morning meeting with the Portland Tribune editorial board, DeFazio declined to say how large he thought the bridge should be or how high tolls should be set. Those are decisions that had to be reached within the region, he says.

But he did say that his priority in assessing the project's design would be the “throughput” of traffic, as opposed to improving freeway interchanges near the bridge.

Although the exact funding mix has yet to be determined, the bridge is expected to be financed through a combination of federal, state and local dollars, with a significant portion of the local dollars coming from tolls imposed on the new bridge.

Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder confirms that planners are already looking at how to reduce the size of the proposed bridge, and how to minimize the cost of the tolls needed to help fund the project.

“I think that by December or January, we’ll have settled on a smaller project that will still meet the goal of reducing congestion on I-5 between Portland and Vancouver,” says Burkholder, Metro’s liaison to the project that is being managed by the Oregon and Washington state transportation departments.

Environmental issues

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