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The article fails to mention citizen input to the Washington State Transportation Commission. That is the missing link in so many of their decisions and discussions.

My remarks, limited to just 3 minutes by the WSTC Board.

"The single biggest transportation project in the history of the Portland metro area is the proposed $5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement. They want to replace the current 3-lane bridge with another 3-lane bridge that is supposed to last for at least 100 years.

If built, the bridge would open in 2032. Yet in 2030, traffic projections indicate we will need 5 lanes in each direction, and by 2070, the I-5 corridor would need 9 lanes in each direction.

The IBR is already promising that AFTER spending $5 billion on the bridge, plus Oregon spending another $1.4 billion on I-5 at the Rose Quarter, travel times will DOUBLE. Today it takes 29 minutes to travel from the I-5/I-205 interchange in Salmon Creek to Portland’s Fremont Bridge. It will take 60 minutes in 2045.

They further project that HALF of rush hour traffic will be stuck traveling zero to 20 mph by 2045, double the current numbers. What a huge waste of transportation dollars.

The IBR demands TOLLING, which Clark County voters reject. Clackamas and Washington County Commissioners are also speaking out against tolling.

You know that TOLLING is hugely inefficient. On Seattle’s I-405, fully 43 percent of tolling dollars go to the cost of collection. Furthermore, we are now in the 3rd year of the entire Washington tolling system needing to be bailed out with other taxpayer dollars. The Seattle SR-99 tunnel TOLLING will be underwater and in the RED for the next 30 years. We don’t need tolling to pay for this bridge!

They are demanding extending Portland’s MAX light rail for $1.3 billion. Yet the MAX Yellow line can only carry 1,000 people an hour, while it travels just 14 mph. Nobody wants to travel that slow! Less than 1,000 people a day use transit to cross the river. Clark County residents have rejected light rail multiple times at the ballot box.

Portland has a dozen bridges across the Willamette River. We need more than 2 bridges across the Columbia River. In the failed CRC effort, the bridge component was just $792 million. We could build a new bridge for under $1 billion. You did that 15 years ago, with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. For just $786 million, the 5,400 foot long bridge provides over 500 feet of clearance for marine traffic. The IBR is proposing only 116 feet of clearance for river traffic, 60 feet lower than the current structure.

On behalf of the roughly 75,000 Clark County residents who work in Oregon, stop this waste of taxpayer money. Let’s build a reasonably priced bridge that adds vehicle capacity for our freight haulers and commuters.

The 2 biggest transportation bottlenecks in the region are the 2-lane Rose Quarter and the 3-lane Vista Ridge Tunnel to Washington County. Neither are being fixed.

We need a 3rd bridge now and new transportation corridors!"