Bridge program leaders presented the bi-state legislative committee with the two “locally-preferred” alternatives, which add light rail to bus rapid transit to the trek between Vancouver and Portland.
Program manager, John Willis, says light rail capacity allows for maximized trips and makes travel time competitive. “Light rail transit investments, we noted, improved access to jobs to a greater degree than bus rapid transit alone, and,” Willis says, “for this particular scenario, light rail transit would be more competitive for that federal discretionary funding that we are searching for as part of the overall financing and funding if the program.”
The alternatives also include either one or two auxiliary lanes which, in the most basic sense, are merging lanes. The bridge team says they would improve travel times and reduce crashes while even helping to keep freight from the ports separate from I-5 traffic.
They’re also hoping to capitalize on the federal infrastructure package for money to fund the project. First, they have to make sure the preferred alternative chosen doesn’t contain what the project administrator called a “fatal flaw” that would force them back to square one in order to qualify for federal money. They’re working with federal partners to avoid that.
There’s also a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement in the works, which is expected to be completed in 2023. It’ll take a decade to build the bridge, with the goal of starting the construction in late 2025.
