Posted on 10/11/2019 12:29:34 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Federal highway officials on Tuesday endorsed an accelerated timeline proposed by Oregon and Washington transportation officials that sets the two states on a fast track toward construction on a new Interstate Bridge by 2025.
Last month, the two states requested a 10-year extension on their timeline to show progress on the bridge project or face repaying nearly $140 million in planning costs tied to the Columbia River Crossing Project. That request would’ve given the states until Sept. 30, 2029, to either start buying up right-of-way or began construction on the I-5 project.
While seeking a decade delay, the states simultaneously suggested a series of aggressive milestones, including reinitiating an environmental review of a proposed project in spring 2020 and starting construction in the summer of 2025.
Travis Brouwer, Oregon’s deputy director for transportation, described the milestones as “highly theoretical,” but also “aspirational” and “reasonable.”
The Federal Highway Administration declined the 10-year extension request but endorsed the aggressive timeline and echoed Brouwer’s assertion. The states now must show considerable progress, including buying up necessary right of way, by the end of September 2024. If the states don’t accomplish that goal, they could owe a collective $140 million to the federal government for planning costs related to the past bridge effort. Oregon’s share is $93.3 million.
“Recognizing the complex nature of the project, including the need to complete on-going consultations on at the federal, state and local levels,” the highway agency wrote, alluding to the political and financial questions surrounding what will likely be a project costing multiple billions of dollars, “FHWA believes it is reasonable for FHWA to grant a time extension.’
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Imagine... the first transcontinental railroad construction began in 1863 and was completed 6 years later. Our generation sucks.
Don’t they realize the world only has 11.5 more years?
Washington state for one, requires that all state transportation construction IIRC be done only by unionists.....it adds a lot to the cost and planning...
‘nearly $140 million in planning costs’
There’s a WTF moment for you.
Take the money back and give it to a state that will use it for highways and bridges.
Both states love big gooberment. Hence the high cost for taxpayers.
What’s wrong with the old bridge? Other than it’s scary as hell crossing on a motorcycle when the winds are blowing.
A couple years ago some idiot lib-tards did an analysis of the people arrested for fare evasion on the MAX and discovered that blacks and Hispanics were highly over-represented.
Using Tard Logic they deduced that the MAX police were racist and targeting blacks.
The Tard Politicians and Bureacrats then made the obvious call: stop prosecuting fare evasion, because the crime has a "disparate impact" on blacks.
You can't make this stuff up it is so stupid.
The new unofficial motto of the MAX is "gangsters ride for free".
So of course people in Clark County (Vancouver) Washington did not want the Liberal Crime Train in our city. And we also did not want to have to pay tolls to cross into Oregon, where many Vancouver residents work.
Washington residents who work in Oregon already pay incomes taxes up to 9.5% to the State of Oregon. The idea of now also being charged $4 a day to use the bridge was not a popular one.
The bridge issue had a huge impact (and continues to) on Vancouver politics. Essentially the Leftists democrats who had run both the City of Vancouver and Clark County as their own private club were voted out by the voters for supporting the Bridge. (Formally known as the "Columbia River Crossing" - tards are so pretentious) .
The Mayor (a Dem) was replaced with a new Mayor who ran against the CRC, and then suddenly changed sides to support it after being elected. He too was voted out the next chance voters had.
Even our Congressional District flipped from D to R largely as a result of the blowback from the Liberals, Democrats and Portland Know-It-Alls trying to force the CRC onto a city that did not want either tolls or minority thugs in our city.
But, they are relentless. I would not be at all surprised to see the "new" bridge still including both Tolls and the Crime Train.
The project was held up for years due to the desire of the federal government that space be allocated on the new bridge for Portland's MAX light rail line to get it extended into Vancouver. It appears that this issue has been resolved.
It’s political project not engineering one. I have to say the form of America is not suitable for this kind of project. This one, if in China, would be done in 2 years and by half the cost
Right after they solve climate change and homelessness.
It’s an Interstate highway. It’s every state’s money.
It's old. Basically reaching the end of lifespan. Nothing lasts forever, not even concrete and steel. But the process is now mired in environmental red tape and run by bureaucrooks so it will cost orders of magnitude more than what the original bridge cost. So sick and tired of government. It's ridiculous that this project is still in the planning stage.
This occurred in the same time frame Oregon dumped $200 million on the obamacare web page that enrolled not one person.
“What’s wrong with the old bridge?”
It doesn’t have enough lanes. The new bridge, as previously planned, would have....... the same number of lanes.
The takeaway; $140 million to plan a bridge and I doubt the planning is of yet comprehensive. Marinate on that, $140 million for planning. The structure being replaced probably didn’t cost $140 million in equivalent dollars for the whole job. This country is severely losing it’s edge.
I don’t see tolls as the end-all problem most people do. The bridge has to be funded. However, it’s utterly mind-boggling why Washington residents have to pay income tax to Oregon just to work there. Don’t they pay Oregon sales tax when they step out for lunch?
Oregon doesn’t have a sales tax because it has a huge income tax. Washington doesn’t have an income tax because it has a huge sales tax.
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