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Always up on the latest trends and news in Portland, the New York Times has once again waded into our waters.
Or, depending on how you look at it, our SNAFU—the Columbia River Crossing.
The paper recounts the $3.4 billion project's failure, and recounts how local leaders, namely Portland Mayor Charlie Hales and Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, are working to find other ways to make elements of the CRC happen. (So are state and federal leaders).
Of note? Josh Alpert, Hales' senior policy adviser, mentioned sending the planned MAX line to downtown Vancouver via a different bridge. Commuter rail or other train options may also make sense, Alpert tells WW.
"We're really looking at everything, and trying to do so in a neighborhood livability perspective," he says.
From the story: "Even a mass transit element, which Portland had insisted on before, could be rethought, Mr. Alpert said, if, for example, an existing freight rail bridge over the water could be used for passenger transit in a new plan."
There is an existing freight rail bridge. It belongs to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company. (Its realignment, by the way, would likely solve a lot of the navigation problems that cause dreaded bridge lifts on Interstate 5).
Light rail may not be liked in Clark County, but maybe it still has a way to get there.
WWeek 2015