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:
- Opinion: Portland’s War on Cars Part 4 – A smarter automobile strategy to end gridlock
O’Toole argues fuel wasted in Portland-area congestion has sextupled since 1982, generating 250,000 tons of extra greenhouse gases annually. - Opinion: Transit ridership trends are dismal but regional plans are oblivious
Puget Sound transit passenger-miles fell 31% from 2015 to 2024 despite a half-million-resident population increase. - Interstate Bridge Replacement Program seeks qualified firms for bridge replacement contract
The CRBR project is backed by $5.7 billion from state funds, federal grants, and future tolling. - Opinion: Bankrupt – A $3.5 billion Rose Quarter Freeway widening project
Joe Cortright argues ODOT’s Rose Quarter project has grown from a $450M approval to a $3.5B estimate, with a $2B funding gap. - Opinion: Portland’s War on Cars 3 – Ending the war on automobiles
O’Toole argues Portland should add toll lanes, fix safety hazards, and redesign TriMet routes to end its anti-auto policies.
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