VANCOUVER, Wash. The price of replacing the aging Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River has climbed past $14 billion, and the light rail line once promised as part of the project keeps getting smaller, Next City reported.
The bi-state project, led by the Washington and Oregon transportation departments, would replace a green steel span built in 1917 that now carries more than 130,000 vehicles a day. The bridge does not meet modern earthquake safety standards, and traffic grinds to a halt whenever the drawbridge lifts to let ships pass, producing at least 10 hours of cumulative delays for drivers, according to Next City.
From 1917 to 1940, an electric streetcar ran alongside cars on the bridge, connecting riders to each city's systems, and modern proposals would bring back rail as a car-free way to travel between Portland and Vancouver. But construction costs have ballooned from an estimated $6 billion in 2022 to more than $14 billion in 2026, putting a fully functional light rail system at risk, Next City reported.
Early plans called for a light rail stop at Vancouver's waterfront development and another near the downtown library's existing transit hub. The most recent plans would instead drop riders near freight train tracks close to the waterfront, with no connections to the rest of the city's transit system, according to the report. Pedestrians and cyclists would face a steep corkscrew ramp that Jason Cromer, founder of the local urbanist group Cycle Vancouver, said would pose significant problems for wheelchair users, older people and even experienced cyclists.
The current proposal would build only the infrastructure for light rail, without confirmed funding for the actual trains and tracks. Zachary Lauritzen, an organizer with the community group Oregon Walks, told Next City the region needs a new bridge but not a massive freeway expansion.
Cromer, who says he has biked across the existing bridge hundreds of times over the past five years, described a narrow shared sidewalk with cars rushing past at 60 miles an hour. Even so, he told Next City the ride can be faster than driving, since some bus trips between the two cities can take nearly three to four times as long.