Governors discuss I-5 bridge across Columbia

The Associated Press

1/23/2008

PORTLAND, Ore. — A new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River is needed to relieve severe congestion and improve the flow of freight and passenger traffic, the governors of Oregon and Washington declared recently.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire stopped short of proposing how to configure more bridge capacity or how to pay for it.

But they said leaders of the two states are committed to a replacement bridge to end what Kulongoski called one of the worst traffic bottlenecks on the West Coast.

“The oldest part of this river crossing is 90 years old and bogs down I-5 traffic like the small hole in an hourglass,” Kulongoski said.

Gregoire said last summer’s collapse of an interstate bridge in Minneapolis was “a wake-up call to this nation.”

`The interstate bridges that connect Vancouver and Portland are heavily used and aging, and it is time to replace them in the name of safety as well as economic vitality,” she said.

A task force of Oregon and Washington state officials who’ve been studying the issue estimates that a new I-5 bridge over the Columbia River could cost $3.1 billion to $4.2 billion.

In a visit last fall, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters endorsed a replacement bridge and said that federal funding likely would account for 80 percent or more of the cost.