Vancouver braces for fight over new span

If Portland is going to insist a new Interstate 5 bridge have no more than 10 lanes, Vancouver intends to push right back for a 12-lane option.

Several Vancouver council members, irked by the comments Portland Mayor Sam Adams made last week, indicated their strong preference Monday for a 12-lane bridge that would cost more to build but experts say would result in fewer accidents and less congestion.

Councilman Tim Leavitt said the data clearly support a 12-lane crossing. Advocating for a smaller bridge is “politics, pure and simple,” he said.

Councilwoman Jeanne Harris said there appears to be political desire to restrict the number of lanes as a way to increase transit use. The bridge, Harris said, needs to be designed to serve the community’s needs for the next 100 years.

“If we build anything less, we are going to have to come back and do something about it,” she said. “It just makes sense to me we should be talking about the highest capacity we can build.”

“It’s funny,” Councilwoman Pat Jollota said. “When you start getting input, you find out everyone out there is a traffic engineer.”

Adams, toward the end of Friday’s Columbia River Crossing project sponsors council meeting in Vancouver, said he might be able to “stretch” and support a 10-lane alternative.

Metro Council President David Bragdon said he also might be able to back a 10-lane crossing, provided that it is correctly “priced” through bridge tolls.

Comments made during meetings only days apart underscore lingering tensions over the crossing project.

Vancouver officials don’t want to build a multibillion-dollar project that would saddle commuters with bridge tolls but provide little additional traffic capacity.

Portland officials are wary of a constructing a big bridge they fear would encourage more automobile commuting and spawn another round of low-density development in Clark County.

Crossing officials have countered that this project is nothing like construction of Interstate 205 more than a quarter-century ago, which opened up large tracts of Clark County and other parts of the Portland area to urban development.

It was a message that resonated with Metro’s top elected official.

“The circumstances of this project are different,” Bragdon said during Friday’s meeting. “It’s not the 1970s. It’s not ’70s planning. I get that.”

But Leavitt, who represents C-Tran on the sponsors council and sat next to Adams during Friday’s meeting, seemed to mock his fellow elected officials Monday.

“Hallelujah,” he said. “Thank goodness someone south of the river is concerned about land use planning here in Clark County.”

It should come as no surprise that Adams and others are pushing for a smaller bridge. Last July, the Portland City Council unanimously approved a resolution backing a replacement bridge with light rail, the same core project the Vancouver City Council and four other governments on both sides of the Columbia River also supported.

But Portland’s resolution said a 12-lane bridge would be the “maximum impact design” and recommended “the smallest bridge possible to meet project needs.”

The Portland City Council and Metro Council will have a joint work session on bridge issues at 10 a.m. Jan. 26 in Portland City Hall, 1221 S.W. Fourth Ave. The Portland council will follow that with a public hearing at 2 p.m. Jan. 29.

Vancouver council members will have a second work session on Feb. 2, only four days before the crossing’s sponsors council meets to make a final recommendation on the lane issue.

Vancouver transportation officials are not planning on their own city council hearing. Judging by the comments Monday, the Vancouver council already has made up its mind that the bridge should have 12 lanes.

Councilwoman Jeanne Stewart said it’s imperative the region does not settle for a bridge that doesn’t substantially increase capacity, adding that some Portland interests appear averse to providing more capacity.

“That’s why we have transportation infrastructure, to facilitate the movement of people and goods and transit,” she said.

Mayor Royce Pollard, who represents Vancouver on the 10-member sponsors council, said the crossing project is designed to lessen congestion and promote trade and commerce.

Pollard said as many as 60,000 Clark County residents commute to Oregon jobs.

“That is a work force for Portland,” he said. “Portland ought to be concerned about those people. … Unfortunately, some people are only concerned about the short-term impacts.”

A 12-lane bridge would have, in each direction, three lanes for through traffic and three auxiliary lanes for vehicles entering and exiting the freeway. It would cost $100 million more than a 10-lane alternative. The bridge project could cost as much as $4.2 billion.

The proposed 12 lanes would be built on the new bridge itself and a stretch of freeway, Mill Plain Boulevard to state Highway 500.

Jeffrey Mize: 360-735-4542 or jeff.mize@columbian.com.