After multiple delays, a critical document for the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program is expected to be released in September.
According to Program Administrator Greg Johnson, the draft supplemental environmental impact statement will be released early this fall, likely before the end of September.
Initially, the 10,000-page document was expected to be released in late 2023. Nonetheless, program officials still anticipate breaking ground on the project in late 2025.
“We are quickly coming to the point of where we’re going to have that key document released,” Johnson said during an online presentation about the document last week. “This is going to be a very, very busy time period as we are transferring from the (National Environmental Policy Act) process into construction.”
The draft supplemental environmental impact statement studies the benefits and impacts of the proposed bridge plan, including on the environment and affected properties. It builds off the work done during the Columbia River Crossing, the bridge-replacement effort that failed in 2014.
Before the document is released to the public, a handful of agencies need to sign off on it, including the Federal Highway and Transit administrations, the Washington and Oregon transportation departments, C-Tran, TriMet, the Regional Transportation Council and Metro.
The document’s release is a prerequisite for construction to begin per the National Environmental Policy Act.
The first setback came in March 2023 after the U.S. Coast Guard and federal government requested the program study a river crossing that does not impede river navigation — such as a drawbridge. Officials cited the back-and-forth with the federal government as the cause of the delay.
Coast Guard approval
The program still needs approval from the Coast Guard. The current proposal has the replacement bridge at 116 feet of vertical clearance. The Coast Guard said a replacement bridge should have at least 178 feet of vertical clearance, the same as the current bridge. That would require a moveable span.
“Our environmental document will analyze all the options for a crossing. We are going to look at the fixed span, and we’ll look at a movable span as well,” said Chris Regan, the program’s environmental manager. “We will have the information within our environmental document to work from that puts us in a position to do an analysis to make sure that we’re moving ahead in the right way.”
Johnson added that program officials meet regularly with river users and the Coast Guard, and that the Columbia River Crossing project received a permit for a 116-foot fixed span.
“Those conversations are ongoing,” he said. “We think we can get there again.”
Public comment
Following the release of the draft supplemental environmental impact statement, a 60-day public comment period will begin.
Officials will respond to comments received during this public comment period, and those responses will be published in the final document. The final document is expected to be released in late summer or early fall of 2025 along with an amended record of decision, Johnson said.
“The public comments will be used to update our technical analysis, refine design options and inform future design,” he added. “Soon after we receive that record of decision, we plan to go into construction.”
To learn more about how to submit feedback once the document is released, visit www.interstatebridge.org/DraftSEIS.
Property acquisition
During the Q&A portion of last week’s presentation, one attendee asked about the property acquisition process for homes and businesses on Hayden Island and in Vancouver that will be displaced by the new bridge.
The program could need to fully or partially acquire 176 parcels, including 43 residential units and 33 businesses, to make room for the replacement bridge, according to KGW.
“Early contracts will not require right-of-way purchases, so we will be able to begin certain aspects of the work without all of the right of way being purchased,” Johnson said.
When asked whether the program has enough funding to acquire those properties, Johnson added that “one of the commitments of the program is to live within the budget and the identified funding we have.”
Currently, the replacement bridge is estimated to cost roughly $7.5 billion. So far, the program has secured roughly $4.1 billion. Tolls are expected to fill in the funding gaps.
However, program officials will provide a new estimate as soon as the draft supplemental environmental impact statement process is complete, Johnson said.
“This is going to be a long haul of a program,” he said. “We do have dollars identified, but there’s still more federal funding that we will be looking to obtain.”
