It's no surprise that ODOT chumps are doubling-down on their absurd double-deck bridge design. The first bridge designs 2004-2008 were sensible, simple single-deck like the Glen Jackson on I-205. Then an African American was elected President and CRC Commission leaders Wsdot and ODOT took Mitch McConnell's vow to "not cooperate with Obama" as "consent" to waste millions on double-deck bridge designs they know should NOT be built. Of the 4 bridge designs from 2011-2013, the first was "peer reviewed" and judged "structurally unsound," the last design dubbed "Like balancing a bowling ball on a golf tee." Putting the transit corridor on a lower deck is a crime. Put it on the same level and it becomes and emergency access corridor! "We don't need no stinking emergency access corridor," grunt ODOT trolls. ODOT director Kris Strickler and Metro Council President Lynn Peterson should be charged with CRIMINAL violations of the planning process. These line & dot junk maps are meant to mislead the public. So far the project cost is $250 million and the design is junk.

The LPA (locally preferred alternative) access to Hayden Island is a death trap. The new central underpass means the exit ramps are blindly steep as they lead to 'T' stops. In the southbound direction, motorists who can't or don't stop or do stop but someone behind doesn't, plunges motorists in the water; an unacceptably high rating for rear-end accident hazard in both directions that should be stricken from the plan, but just fine with ODOT director Kris Strickler (former Wsdot project manager along with Lynn Peterson).

In 2011, when the first bridge design was made public and peer reviewed as "structurally unsound" - the first thing CRC leader Wsdot did was defer funding to finish ODOT's Marine Drive interchange, a fine design to construct first to create construction staging access, but now potentially off the table. The Port of Portland needs better access to Marine Drive and the existing stoplight and public crosswalk are terrible.

The Coast Guard killed the original CRC project in 2013 by announcing it didn't meet minimum standard river clearance of 125' - the design first was 90' and then raised to 116' after the concern was raised by the Port. So add 10' to the design and the terrible Hayden Island access design gets more complicated and more expensive. Simpler single-deck met the river clearance, but it's still off the table even though it was the preferred alternative 2004-2009. Go to the project webpage linked in the article and you'll find LOUSY maps that clearly demonstrate the project is again criminally mismanaged by nefarious crooks and dimwits who'll do anything for money like that famous John Lennon song "All you need is money...money money...money is all you need."