(The Center Square) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers whose charge is to provide updates on the plans and cost to replace the Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon has run into a bit of a roadblock.
Planners seem to be unable to provide cost estimates.
The aging bridge is a traffic bottleneck, slowing freight and commuters. Supporters of the replacement also site seismic risks in the event of a powerful earthquake.
Those who support finishing the original plan from years ago for another corridor, similar to SR205, argue the current bridge has many useful years remaining and contend neither state can afford the ballooning costs of a bridge replacement that includes light rail.
At a Dec 15 meeting of the Joint Oregon-Washington Legislative Action Committee, lawmakers from Oregon and Washington anticipated getting updated figures as years of delays and design changes have dramatically escalated costs.
“It’s a light rail project in search of a bridge,” said Vancouver Republican Rep. John Ley in an interview with The Center Square. “They decided we need to destroy the current bridge in order to create a pathway for the light rail.”
Ley is a member of the two-state committee.
During the Dec 15 meeting, planners said they are waiting on information from the U.S. Coast Guard.
“We do not have a numbers update for you this month,” said incoming program administrator Carley Francis.
She explained they are waiting on height requirements for the bridge and whether or not it will be a fixed span, as state lawmakers prefer, or a moveable structure, before final cost estimates can be provided.
A moveable span, like the current structure, would be far more expensive.
Lawmakers in both states are wrestling with major budget challenges as the 2026 legislative sessions approach.
Ley said one of the main obstacles for him is the design for light rail on the new bridge. He contends ridership doesn’t demand the rail line, and Washington taxpayers would be on the hook for subsidizing Portland’s rail system.
“I introduced a bill that went nowhere last year. And I introduced an amendment that said Washington will pay zero capital costs for a transit organization in another state. And of course, the Democrats killed it and wouldn't hear it. It's insanity on many levels,” Ley said. "But that is all part of the game, all in an effort to try and bail out Portland's transit system that's going broke.”
Oregon lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also raised pointed questions about the lack of specifics.
“Even with the Oregon budget right now, we’re asking all of our agencies to estimate a 5%, 10% cut in their future calculation of their budget,” said Oregon Rep. Thủy Trần, D-Portland. “Is your group doing the same?
“I'm sure Washington doesn't have all the money it wants to have either and so we want to know how your committee or your team is adjusting to the change? You can’t punt it down the road without giving us something,” she said. “So I want a date and I want a report or else I would say that your teammates are not doing [the] work to be blunt ma’am.”
Oregon Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, also pushed back on planners not providing new cost estimates.
“We can’t even tell Oregonians and Washingtonians the cost to what we’re looking at and part of the reason is we’re pacifying all of these stakeholders, and we can’t even say two auxiliary lanes," Davis said. "This is craziness."
She was referring to the current design including light rail, bike and pedestrian lanes, thereby limiting auxiliary lanes that provide extra space for drivers to safely speed up to match traffic flow as they merge.
Rep. Ley told The Center Square its inexcusable that planners can’t provide new cost estimates even with a final design not agreed upon.
“In a world of AI, in supercomputing….we could get daily updated cost estimates on what the bridge would be," Ley said. "Bottom line is, they have numbers. But they know if they told them it was going to be $10 billion or $12 billion, both the Oregon and Washington legislature would say, “are you out of your flipping mind? There's no way we can afford that.”
Some have speculated the entire project as designed will be scrapped. The federal government is scrutinizes projects all over the country, with a focus on examining transit projects, including light rail that had been automatically green-lighted by the Biden administration.
It's unlikely Oregon and Washington could afford moving forward without federal funding.
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