I was just reading the 2014 State of the County address, and noticed a little item in Commissioner Madore's section of the speech (strangely enough, said County address was at the "Square Dance Center", rather than, say, 13th & Franklin).
Said item addressed ongoing developments towards a new East County bridge, to cross the Columbia River at SE 192nd Avenue, connecting with Airport Way and the NE 181st Avenue I-84 interchange - eastcountybridge.com.
I see nothing necessarily wrong with having a third bridge. In fact, I think there should be a third bridge on the west side of town, to take all the truck traffic off I-5, and complete the circle freeway loop around Portland/Vancouver that OR-217 is a part of.
Having said that, a couple items on the East County Bridge site give me pause:
-the cost of the bridge will be $900M. Nowhere on the site does it indicate where said monies will come from. Are we to assume the County plans on issuing bonds for $900M to build it? I'm guessing, given Madore is proposing said bridge upon the "will of the voters" (who had a smorgasbord of bridge choices to vote on last fall), it won't be paid for with taxes, fees, or tolls. Does Madore know something about State funding that we don't (does "our man in Olympia", Senator/Director Benton, have something up his sleeve)? Is Madore going to personally donate said $900M out of his own fortune? Have Metro, Portland City Council, or Multnomah County Council (not to mention Salem) offered funds? Hard and transparent numbers would be a GOOD THING here, and soon.
-said bridge will only relieve "one-half lane of traffic" at rush hour from I-5 - not a whole heck of alot. Madore and backers of this new bridge claim two lanes of traffic will be gone from I-205 at rush hour - nice, but doesn't exactly solve a pressing problem (given the backup on 205 at rush hour is not all that bad compared with Interstate bridge). Truck traffic (a HUGE I-5 bridge woe) is mostly NOT going to East County, or Troutdale/Gresham. Rather, said traffic is either going to the Ports of Portland/Vancouver or the industrial areas on the west and south sides (not to mention straight through on south).
-have both Olympia and Salem, and our state transportation, environmental, and other relevant departments signed off on this East County bridge? Wouldn't both states want to do studies first to see for themselves? What about the feds, including the US Dept of Interior, the DEA, Transportation Dept, etc (keeping in mind that ANY Columbia River bridge, because it crosses state lines, involves Federal approval - that darned ol' 10th Amendment of the Constitution again)? I would think a giant new bridge being built on Government Island, a wildlife refuge, would give pause.
-does this mean the County isn't gonna cooperate with new state efforts, like this "Bistate" business (see above re: difficulties). What do state reps in the East End think about this new 192nd Ave bridge?
I realize that we're not going forward with the Columbia River Crossing - and I'm grateful we're not. I do think we need to re-think the whole Interstate Bridge thing with everyone getting their voices heard. However, a $900M bridge just plopped down at SE 192nd Ave is sort of like using a sledgehammer where a light "tap" would do - I don't get why throwing a giant new expensive, politically "hot", difficult to build bridge is the answer - particularly when it doesn't relieve I-5 traffic hardly at all.
I'd prefer Madore and his hired help NOT spend their money dreaming of said new bridge in East County and instead hit the drawing board on SMART moves to relieve I-5 traffic (you know, get Oregon to remove the Jantzen Beach interchange, for instance; get the State trans dept to prohibit truck traffic in all 3 lanes; put in a carpool lane; take out the Washington St/C St on/off ramps; add commuter rail on existing train tracks; get behind the WILL of voters and commit help to bus rapid transit; prod Oregon to do something about a bottlenecked N Portland I-5 - things like that). However, I realize Madore just bulls ahead with whatever he thinks we all want - so...unless "our man in Olympia" is gonna just bulldoze opposition to said new bridge and sprinkle dollars down for it like the good fairy of freeways...it'd be smarter to get all ducks in a row now rather than run into roadblock after roadblock down the line.
--
Shea Michael Anderson
1923 Harney St, Vancouver WA 98660
360 991 5206, 360 852 7414 (msgs)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please, go ahead and say something - let me and others know what you think, how you feel, what should be done...what I didn't say, should have said...or how shrill I am/not shrill enough. Be assertive here.