Let’s add a second hallelujah for those who respect and revere history: Pearson Field is not going to be exterminated in favor of a fluffy replacement Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River.

Those are among a potpourri of issues and comments that surfaced during June as the new I-5 bridge over the Columbia inches toward construction.

Riley Research Associates is credited with the first point of jubilation. The Portland firm asked Clark County and Portland residents whether they favored light rail on the Columbia crossing.

To recap: 504 randomly selected households in four counties responded June 2-12. Overall, 71 percent said they want light rail on the bridge. That includes Clark County, at 62 percent “yes” answers; Multnomah, 80 percent; Clackamas, 61 percent and Washington County, 75 percent.

The Riley telephone poll was in line with polls in 2006 and last year that found majority support for light rail in Clark County. All three reflected a substantial change of heart from 1995, when voters rejected, by a 3-to-1 margin, sales and motor vehicle taxes that would have extended light rail into Clark County.

State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond came to town last Wednesday, and set off a new round of discussion about the replacement bridge. A major point: Can enough money be found to finance the estimated $4.2 billion structure?

During a Columbian editorial board discussion, she pointed out vehicle use of state roads and highways dropped 2 percent over a year’s time between 2007 and 2008. That translates to a $60 million shortfall in gas tax revenue in the current biennium. And with gasoline at more than $4 a gallon, “we can’t increase the gas tax.”

If construction of the new bridge were to begin in late 2011, “a miracle would have to happen in Olympia,” she told Columbian reporters Jeffrey Mize and Kathie Durbin for a Thursday story. Hammond added, “We have no idea today where the state contribution would come from.” Hammond said $125 million for the bridge might flow from the U.S. Senate Transportation Appropriations subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Paying to cross

Bridge tolls also figure into financing, and there might be an attempt to woo private investors into the funding picture. That would provide “early money” to get things going. Tolls would compensate private investors, but there seems little traction for pre-tolling.

Incidentally, Hammond said she favors light rail on the new bridge. With a Portland MAX connection so close at hand, “I think light rail is a great idea,” she said.

She also had welcome words for Pearson Field fans. She said she would support “leaving Pearson alone” in construction of the new bridge.

Some Portlanders suggested historic Pearson Field be relocated to make way for a eye-pleasing design of the new Columbia River crossing, something akin to San Francisco’s Golden Gate.

Vancouver Council member Tim Leavitt asked for information about Pearson at a council workshop last week. Pressed on that point, he said Friday he questioned the accuracy of some of the information he was receiving about the Vancouver airfield and wants to “drill down” for more facts. “I’d like to see a bridge we can be proud of, but I’m not saying we should do away with Pearson.”

Leavitt mentioned locating a general aviation field in the “Tri-Mountain” area, near the Ridgefield I-5 exit. Putting a field near Pioneer, in the same area, was advanced more than a decade ago, and soundly trounced.

Ignored, or forgotten, is a plan by the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust to design a dramatic gateway to the state immediately north of the bridge.
Pearson is not just another airport, it is a place of historic events in aviation. Would we relocate the Statue of Liberty because it’s a menace to ships in New York harbor, or tear down the Washington monument to improve air safety? NOOOOOOO. Leave Pearson alone. It’s part of what makes this north shore community unique.

Nor should a reasonable discussion of the new bridge be allowed to blemish the good relationship between Vancouver and Portland.

Tom Koenninger is editor emeritus of The Columbian. His column of personal opinion appears on the Other Opinions page each Wednesday. Reach him at tom.koenninger@columbian.com.