CRC Legislation Attempts Cost Containment

Proposed Columbia River Crossing
By NIGEL JAQUISS

Lawmakers today are getting a first look at how Oregon's $450 million down payment on the proposed $3.5 billion Columbia River Crossing project might come together.

House Bill 2800 attempts to address some of the many concerns critics of the project have expressed about the project. The bill's provisions would limit Oregon's contribution; withhold the money until Washington puts up an equal amount; make Oregon's contribution contingent on a federal commitment; and—at some point in the future—produce an investment-grade analysis of the project's underlying assumptions. 

Lawmakers will be pressed by legislative leaders to vote on spending $450 million on the bridge before they get a serious, independent financial analysis.

The key assumptions involve traffic volume and the toll revenue that traffic would produce. As Portland economist Joe Cortright has demonstrated, the Oregon Department of Transportation's own figures show that the number of vehicles crossing the I-5 bridge daily is 15 percent lower—about 19,000 vehicles per day—than the figures on which the project built its financial assumptions.

Here is the part of the bill that includes some proposed safeguards:

WWeek 2015

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