Charging Interstate 5 drivers money to cross the Columbia River remains on the negotiating table

[Chief]

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1211954106178540.xml&coll=7

The ideas of Metro councilors and highway planners don't exactly mesh

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
DYLAN RIVERA
The Oregonian Staff

A proposal to charge tolls on the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia now and consider adding traffic lanes later got a lukewarm reception Tuesday, as the Metro Council appeared to find itself out of step with a regional bridge-building drive a decade in the making.

But the idea remains in play.

Three of the seven councilors offered a resolution that would enact tolls on the current bridge connecting Portland and Vancouver to raise money for light rail, safety improvements and earthquake-proofing. The bridge would then presumably have less traffic congestion, giving leaders the ability to pursue a smaller, less expensive bridge.

Some of the four other Metro councilors, however, raised concerns about the idea, and one openly pondered whether tolls would impede trucking.

But no one dismissed the proposal outright.

The discussion concerned the Columbia River Crossing, a proposed fix to the Interstate 5 bridge, a traffic bottleneck that crimps the West Coast's key freight artery. A federal study outlines five alternatives -- including doing nothing -- but the one with the most backing would replace the six-lane bridge with a $4.2 billion, 12-lane bridge, light-rail extension to Vancouver and fixes for six highway interchanges. Toll charges, planned to be steepest during rush hour, are part of all four construction alternatives.

After the meeting, the toll-first, decide-on-a-bridge-later idea was roundly rebuked by John Osborn, co-director of the Columbia River Crossing project and the highest ranking Oregon transportation department official on the project team.

The Oregon Constitution prohibits toll charges from being used for mass transit as the proposal calls for, Osborn said.

**SCHNIPP**

You get the gist of this story.

Doug Ficco, the Washington side Project Director has got to be just about livid at Metro over this. Liberty and his followers have really stirred up a hornet's nest over this with their Patella-like delicacy. Where were these people whole the planning has been going on for the past couple of years? I'm not pleased with the process to date, but I'm not down there jamming monkey wrenches in the gears like this....

cewl

[Waterbuffalo]

You have also spent HOW long studying the issues and asked very thoughtful but politically negative questions like: How much is this going to cost and Who is going to pay for the Light Rail into Vancouver?

Yeah, Captain Sonar must be selling Franchises because this one has his writing all over it.

Hope to watch more later in the next couple days to see what is said. Must have been real fun.. Sorry I could not attend, hell bent sick..

Is there not a meeting at the Quay tomorrow?

[Chief]

Updating...

You can see that Metro has their own way of looking at things when it comes to the Columbia Crossing Project, and although we don't get a vote on Metro, what the do will definitely affect Clark County residents.

[Waterbuffalo]

Like pushing all their growth north, so they do not have to pay for it, charge tolls on the bridges and entrances into the Portland Metro area, then force us to find ways to build businesses that depend on transportation and the all mighty dollar from Portland.

Honestly, I hope that we finally and DO put this idea to rest once and for all. May be it was a waste of a 100 million to learn the truth.

But I honestly do feel that if this commission is allowed to proceed, its just going to rubber stamp with their butts and votes what ever the Governors want.

Now I'm ready to ask one of our members on the Washington state senate transportation, Don Benton. Don, you have been doing a lot of talking against this project. Now its time to put up or shut up, plus your running for re-election. How are you going to kill this bridge once and for all?

And please do not tell me its someone else's fault. Your one of the represenatives of our community who has been waving the flag against this Bridge. How are you going to do it?

[Chief]

Don Benton sits on the Board of RTC as well, but I'm afraid he is seriously outnumbered by the Loot Rail special interests who are determined to make Clark County a fully owned subsidiary of Trimet.

[Waterbuffalo]

If you have watched the RTC chief, you will know that the legislators do not have a vote on the board. They'/re just there to listen.

The last RTC meeting talked about that.

[Chief]

They may not be voting members, but they are there to exert influence on what RTC does.

[Waterbuffalo]

They may not be voting members, but they are there to exert influence on what RTC does.

Agreeing with you on this one.

[Chief]

And of course, every Candidate for the Legislature is silent on specifics about what will be done in the next session in Olympia after the elections, to enable Loot Rail to be driven into Vancouver with as few public votes as possible, and paid for with tolls on both bridges that will never be removed.

Jim Moeller sure hopes he can get reelected safely without anyone asking him any embarrassing questions about tolling. Don Benton assures us that he will never vote to approve tolls, but I want to know what specific things he intends to do to fight against Loot Rail Legislation and how he intends to prevent tolls on BOTH crossings.

I'm not sure Joseph James has found an advisor to explain the entire problem to him in order to form a cogent opinion yet, and Tim Probst isn't about to campaign actively or do anything other than try and ride Obama's coat-tails into another DemocRat seat in Olympia. Probst isn't going to express an opinion, because he doesn't have to.

Add to the problem that the local media is so heavily invested in Loot Rail at a Corporate level so as to make it impossible to get any kind of accurate reporting on what is really going on in town. That only ensures that 60% of the local voters are so uninformed about what's happening as to not even bother to vote, even when we mail them the ballot and give them almost three weeks to figure out what to do with it...

It makes me sick to my stomach.

:p

[Waterbuffalo]

I was not going to respond to your comment because you said it some much better here than I could have ever.

I'd love to get some good answers from "each" of the candidates on how they're going to solve the CRCP mess. Instead of one liners like " i support light rail" or "I support light rail with the bridge."

Folks, if your reading this, we all have three months to vet all the local, state and national candidates til the November 4th election. Please get out your paper, pen, electronic email box and send off a small token of your affection, inflection and find out for all yourselves what the candidates think.

There are too many candidates to list here.

As to Chief and I, both of us have spent nearly three years of our lives watching, reading and poring over CRCP, web sites, researching so many angles, I cannot even begin to start to think of them all. I think both of us are tired of the hypocrisy we see in this process to see that is fair for both sides.

Even if I do or do not agree with Chief on light rail on this new bridge. I do feel that there needs to be some changes to the organization that has been behind it which was originally called a study?

From what he has posted here, I'm looking with disgust at the current process as it is going forward.

To Joseph as a side bar, I think Chief is SPOT ON with what he said here. You really need to step up and understand what your talking about, because if you start spouting, Tim will eat you alive.