You know that horror movie gimmick where someone’s supposed to be dead, but then they open their eyes and grab the protagonist while some loud orchestral burst makes you jump? That’s sort of been the Columbia River Crossing, lately.

The proposal for a new bridge (and wider highway) as Interstate 5 crosses the Columbia was thought deceased last year, when Washington didn’t pony up its share. But it inhaled sharply, the orchestra jammed on their cellos and violas and timpani, and the project seemed to breathe yet—this time under a proposal that Oregon assume all the financial risk.

But now maybe it’s finally dead. At least, according to the chair of the Oregon Senate Transportation Committee. The Columbian reports Springfield Democratic Sen. Lee Beyer has communicated as much to Washington State Sen. Ann Rivers.

“I am doubtful that the CRC will make it to a vote in February,” Beyer wrote to Rivers. “Having worked on this issue as the committee chair for a few years now, it is my belief that Oregon is done with the bridge issue, and we can just hope we don’t have an earthquake or that accidents do not get too bad. My guess is the bridge issue is dead in our state for the next decade or two. Personally, I am shifting my attention to other transportation issues.”

The reflections follow a hearing on the bridge in Salem last week, where it became clear there were many, many unanswered questions—and a lot of indigestion—surrounding the proposed Oregon-led version of the project.

So maybe the restive french horn section can finally go home? You never know with this thing.

I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters...

6 replies on “CRC: Dead Again?”

  1. The CRC will never die. Why? Because traffic is still a bottleneck, the metro area’s still growing by leaps and bounds and the old crossing is still decrepit and threatening to fall into the fucking river. Building a new bridge will cease to be an issue only after we’ve built a new fucking bridge.

    You eco-turds can bury your heads in the sand and pretend that none of those problems exist– please do! Tell Grandpa Wheatgrass to keep churning out “alternative” designs out of macraroni and Popsicle sticks over there at the organic retirement home, because they’re hilarious. Keep writing undergrad Urban Studies theses on how the entire west coast could replace semi trucks with handcrafted cargo bikes. Again, hilarious.

    Keep the circlejerk alive! If everyone holds hands and sings with enough heart, together we can LEVITATE THE CRC!

  2. Wow Cunty, that is a fascinating rewriting of [recent] history. Because in fact, it seemed as though Light Rail haters from the dirty ‘Couv, wielding their power in the WA State house were actually the ones who killed the bridge. Then, despite OR House Speaker Kotek’s (D) best efforts, other fiscally attentive folks pointed out how idiotic it would be to build a bridge only on Oregon’s dime.
    Also, the CRC was only designed for a ~6.0ish earthquake, about what the current green monster is expected to withstand – nowhere near what “the Big One” will likely be.
    Now maybe we can think about more affordable options that would actually fix the PROBLEM as opposed to lining the pockets of contractors, consultants, and politicians up and down I5 by building a bunch of new on ramps to get to the gridlock around RoseQuarter faster.

  3. from the CRC’s own report:

    “1. Is it feasible to retrofit the existing structures? If so, how?

    Yes, it is technically feasible to retrofit the existing bridges to the current seismic safety standards. The Panel identified expected vulnerable elements of the bridges and discussed potential retrofit concepts to address these vulnerabilities. Retrofit concepts could include strengthening or replacing significant portions of the existing bridges.”

    if you ODOT is hellbent on spending money on increasing capacity they should FIRST retrofit the existing bridges and fix the area near the RQ. THEN build a local bridge between Hayden Island and Vancouver (with assistance from WDOT), and maybe one to the Expo Center area.

    if the combination of those measures, and the declining use of automobiles in general, don’t help reduce the bottleneck then by all means explore spending $1b plus of our taxes. until then, fuck off.

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