Transportation

The multibillion dollar boondoggle, aka the MegaBridge, aka the Columbia River Crossing (CRC), continues to run up against two inescapable facts: it's too expensive, and it will increase global warming pollution at a time where we need to be dramatically reducing it.

While CRC project staff have tried to massage the cost numbers (from $4,200 million to a mere $3,500 million) by delaying parts of the project until later ("look, we can afford the Ferrari because we won't pay some of the car loan until later"), the pollution numbers can't be ignored.

In The Portland Tribune's Sustainable Life section, published today, you can read an interview by Steve Law with recently departed OLCV executive director Jonathan Poisner.

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance has an excellent summary of what's happened to the proposed bicycle and pedestrian facilities in the design of the region's largest-ever infrastructure project, the Columbia River Crossing multi-billion-dollar MegaBridge.

In short: they've gone from 12 and 26 feet wide to a single dark underbridge design, mostly 16 feet wide.