August II, 2010
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The Week i Review
S ustainability
photo by J ake T homas /T he P ortland O bserver
Traffic passes through Hayden Island just south of a proposed new bridge that would replace the 1-5
twin bridges that now connect Oregon to Washington. A new proposal scales back the proposed
new bridge from 12 lanes to 10.
Bridge Project Scaled Back
1-5 crossing
now set at 10
lanes, not 12
IMUIUSH1M
pages 9-14
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page 15
pinion
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by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
After months of negotiations,
Columbia River Crossing planners
and residents of Hayden Island
have found a solution to how the
project will impact their homes.
However, other issues remain to be
resolved before the shovels hit the
dirt on the massive public works
project.
The CRC, a proposed replace­
ment bridge on the 1-5 corridor be­
tween Portland and Vancouver, has
been hotly criticized for its size,
design and initial price tag of $4.2
billion. Late last year, planners pro­
posed a scaled-back version of the
bridge that reduced the price tag to
$3.6 billion, but also put a tangle of
freew ay o n -an d -o ff ram ps on
Hayden Island.
The interchanges would have
put 22 lanes o f traffic on the is­
land, with 50 overhead structures.
The proposal drew im passioned
outcries that the new interchange
w ould adversely affect the large
population o f seniors and home-
bound people who live on the
island. Residents also worried that
it would make their com m unity
even more isolated and remove
vital services, like nearby phar­
macies that many depend on.
The new proposal, which was
adopted unanim ously by the CRC
P rojects S ponsors C ouncil on
M onday after m onths of work by
project staff, would reduce the
num ber o f lanes to 17 as well as
the overhead structures. Local
access to the island would be ac­
com m odated by a bridge to the
W est o f 1-5, next to the structure
carrying light rail. The revised plan
w ould m ake North Tom ahaw k
Drive a main street for the island.
Advocates o f the island and
CRC planners reached a consen­
sus that was approved by the
Project Sponsors Council, a group
o f governm ent officials from both
sides of the Columbia. The coun­
cil also agreed on a 10-lane bridge,
instead o f 12 lanes.
During the public comment pe­
riod at an Aug. 5 presentation of the
changes to the project at Jantzen
Beach Supercenter, there seemed to
be a virtual consensus between
advocates foF the island and plan­
ning staff.
Matt Whitney, the chair of the
Bridgeton Neighborhood Associa­
tion and one of many people who
spoke on behalf of the changes to
Hayden Island, said that not only
did his neighborhood association
support the change, but so did the
N orth P ortland N eighborhood
Chairs Network, a coalition of 11
chairs from north Portland neigh­
borhoods.
"It goes a long way to support
growth in north Portland," he said.
Even Ed Garren- co-chair of the
Hayden Island plan, former city
council candidate, and self-d<
scribed "relentless and sometime
difficult person forCRC s ta f f - saij
he supported the revisions to tl
plan.
Although this issue seems to be
resolved, for now, others that still
linger.
Steve Horenstein, the co-chair of
the CRC Projects Sponsors Council
who was presiding over the meet­
ing, probably heard more about other
problems people had with the bridge
than Hayden Island.
A number of Vancouver busi­
ness owners made it clear that they
felt that tolls on the bridge would
badly hurt their business. When
Horenstein, who continuously had
to remind participants that they were
off topic, asked one man what he
thought about the Hayden Island
Plan after giving a diatribe about
tolls.
His response: as long as they
continued
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