Lars Larson addresses the delay in updated cost projections of the I-5 Bridge replacement project
Lars Larson
The Northwest Nonsense
You wanna bet Interstate Bridge Replacement Program (IBR) Administrator Greg Johnson didn’t drop the Interstate Bridge ten-billion-dollar-price-bomb at Portland City Hall this week because the legislature’s plan for a record tax hike got held up?
Only five years ago, Johnson told Oregon and Washington the new I-5 Bridge would cost less than $5 billion. Two years later, his estimate jacked up 50-percent to $7.5 billion.
Standard practice for ODOT … lowball the hell out of a project and tell the buyers – citizens – the bad news when it’s too late to shout “stop.”
Johnson has promised a new cost estimate over and over for the past two years … each time delaying it … like someone who just doesn’t have the guts to deliver bad news.
No one expects the new number to be less than $9 billion … and most, like economist Joe Cortright, predict $10 billion … more than a 100 percent increase in just five years.
I bet if Oregon Democrats had delivered that historic record tax increase they planned last weekend, Johnson would have dropped the news this week.
Instead, he now promises the new estimate later this year or early next year … when he plans to start construction of this already failed project.
They don’t have the money to build it.
The Coast Guard has not given its required approval
Public opposition to funding from freeway tolling remains fierce.
But as long as he hides the bad news, Greg Johnson can keep cashing the checks from his six figure salary.
Also read:
- Letter: Present bridge plan has been in the expensive and unworkable planning stage far too long with no real end in sight
Brush Prairie resident Bob Mattila argues the I-5 Bridge plan doubles costs by including light rail on the span. - POLL: Should C-TRAN taxpayers be protected from paying additional costs tied to extending light rail to Library Square?
C-TRAN’s board asked IBR to extend light rail to Library Square but voted down taxpayer cost protections. - Weekday, weeknight, and weekend lane closures continue on southbound I-5 in Vancouver May 14–18
Kerr Contractors Oregon LLC will close up to three southbound I-5 lanes between NE 179th St and the I-5/I-205 split through May 18. - Plan ahead for Memorial Day travel: Expect delays on Washington’s busiest routes
WSDOT’s holiday travel charts map peak congestion windows on I-5, I-90, US 2, and the Canada border crossing. - Opinion: IBR creates 50,000 road refugees
Lars Larson argues IBR’s tolling plan would push 50,000 daily commuters off I-5 onto I-205.
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