Oregon Public Broadcasting

Flash points have erupted in recent days over the region’s biggest transportation project – the Columbia River Crossing.

Essential to freight haulers and commuters alike, the project also continues to challenge regional leaders trying to develop a common vision for what the bridge will look like.

April Baer has been following the story, and joins me in studio. April, what’s new?

April Baer: Beth, you remember a week ago Friday, when  the mayors of Portland and Vancouver sat down with Clark County and Metro, the regional tri-county government got together– calling themselves the L4? They signed a letter indicating they wanted to move forward together?

It’s been just over a week, for cracks to show in that agreement. The Columbian newspaper published a story Monday that mentioned Portland planners were working on a re-visioning of the bridge.

The bridge is frequently understood as 10 or 12 lanes – but this plan has it as a six-lane structure. Not exactly what Commissioner Steve Stuart of Clark County has in mind.

Steve Stuart: “We’d just got done working as local elected officials on a project to move forward together. So, us finding out there’d be work done individually by the city of Portland cut across the grain of what we’d already talked about. And we didn’t know about it."

Stuart says this was no deal-breaker. But he did call Portland Mayor Sam Adams to ask what was going on.

I talked to transportation officials at Portland city hall. They said, well, yes, “it is very important to the mayor to hold the L4 coalition together” 

The draft is on hold  -- but they also say this was no big secret project. Portland raised questions going back to early winter, and couldn’t get answers.

That’s why they were doing their own research, is how they describe it.

Beth Hyams: Disaster averted, right?

April Baer: Not so fast! Last night, Vancouver City council members sounded nervous about what this means.  Councilor Larry Smith said he was bothered to think he was being used.

Councilor Jeanne Stewart went a step farther.  She told Mayor Tim Leavitt, if, she says, this bridge were revisioned as six lanes, with a light rail system Vancouver would have to help pay for, and no increased bridge capacity -- this is her reaction.

Jeanne Stewart:   “It looks to me like a lose-lose, make me wonder why we’d want to do it at all.”

That applause you hear is an indicator of how much pressure Vancouver’s leaders are under to maintain their independence, and resist plans to make this a toll bridge --almost as much as Portland metro leaders are under to make the bridge as green as possible.

Beth Hyams: So if the North and South sides of the Columbia still can’t agree on bridge size or cost issues, does this really stop the project in its tracks?

April Baer: Not exactly. Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt told me today he’s been to Olympia, and is confident state leaders will not back out on funding.

Steve Stuart agrees, he says this is just process. The big question is  what do the feds, contributing the largest projected share of bridge money, make of this?

Peter Defazio  “At the moment, there’s no 400 million dollars for anything.”

Oregon Congressman Peter Defazio chairs the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit – everybody involved cares what he thinks. But Defazio notes the Obama administration hasn’t moved on a six-year transit and highway bill. So local leaders have time to sort out disagreements.

Peter Defazio  “I guess if I reflect on the letter they sent, they seemed to be on the same page, although I saw some press accounts today somewhat at variance with that. I didn’t find anything to disagree with in that letter.”

We’ll see how long federal patience will last.