Lars Larson comments on this week’s news that the Oregon and Washington transportation officials have agreed to pay upriver users $140 million to mitigate ‘a bridge too low’
Lars Larson
The Northwest Nonsense
Ready for the latest insane waste of your tax dollars?
Plans for the latest and soon to fail Interstate Bridge replacement propose to build a span more than 60 feet too low … and, just announced this week, it plans to bribe Northwest businesses.
The bribe? It’s $140 million to compensate for the business they’ll lose when the brand-new, same-size-as-the-old-one, boondoggle bridge blocks the river.
Federal funding has disappeared.
Oregon and Washington must pay for most of it and they’re just about flat broke.
The Coast Guard has still not given approval and that’s absolutely required.
Public opposition grows. The light rail line, all two miles of it, now ranks as the single most expensive on earth at more than $1 billion a mile.
Initial daily ridership projections, a lie from the start, keep edging down from tens of thousands of daily riders, to just a few.
Does anyone in Northwest leadership have the spine to pull the plug on this $10 billion joke … or do we just tolerate ODOT’s “contractor from hell” model of lowballing the front end estimate and then doubling or tripling the price when it’s too late to pull out?
Also read:
- Drivers may experience traffic delays and closures during summer road preservation work in Clark County
Multiple preservation methods including slurry seal, chip seal and hot mix asphalt will impact county roadways. - Vancouver Fire Department responds to emergency aircraft landing on SR-14
A Cessna aircraft made an emergency landing on State Route 14 near milepost 2 after experiencing mechanical issues. - Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement published for Interstate Bridge Replacement Program
Federal agencies published the final environmental impact statement for the Interstate Bridge replacement project. - Speed cameras designed to bring added safety to work zones
WSP issued 65,000 infractions in first year, with 59,000 being penalty-free first offenses as program expands statewide. - Marie Gluesenkamp Perez seeks federal assistance in combating sea lion predation of salmon & steelhead fishing stock
Congresswoman pushes for expanded lethal removal authority as sea lions devour Columbia River fish stocks.
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