- BT Livermore
After the CRC had poured $40 million of public funds into paying consultants who came up with the plan for replacing the current six lane I-5 bridge across the river with a new $4.2 billion, 12-lane bridge, the city of Portland commissioned a $100,000 study that changed the course of the plans.
The brief study from URS consultants showed that a 10 lane bridge would work just as well as a 12-laner but save $50 million. The study also showed that building an eight-lane bridge would be far cheaper, but to improve the traffic situation, 37 percent of commuters would have to use public transit (versus three percent these days).
So here's big issue facing the critics of the project: Should they be content with a "less bad" option? Activist group Stop the CRC protested this morning's meeting with signs and banners, calling for Mayor Adams to reject the plan and try to get the bridge back the drawing board altogether. The coalition of environmental groups that form the strongest voice of opposition to the bridge penned an editorial that they hoped would run in the Oregonian this morning (it didn't) that spells out all the problems with this project, but stops short of saying Adams is making a mistake to move forward. Instead, it says the CRC staff should "conduct a detailed study of all the alternative recommendations."
"We clearly shouldn't all just be singing kumbaya around a 10-lane bridge," says Bicycle Transportation advocate Gerik Kransky.
"The key here is to build support for more study and actually look at alternatives," adds Environment Oregon advocate Brock Howell. "At some point, someone's going to sue this project, so let's get it right the first time or we'll be stuck in this thing for 10 years."
Read the environmentalists' full letter below the cut!