I live in Portland, where I moved from Clark County because I prefer higher taxes and urban life. But I’m just sayin’.

I don’t disagree with your other analyses. But this is a very common mistake Oregonians make, and it’s unjustly poisoned the debate about the bridge.

Plus, perhaps, improvements to the BNSF bridge for long-distance rail service and for *freight* service; freight movement should not be by truck except over short distances, and pulling all the long-distance truck traffic onto the rails is desirable.

In contrast, the 12-lane monstrosity is a fright; the 10-lane monstrosity is still a fright. Perhaps an 8-lane monstrosity would be an acceptable compromise. In actual fact, more than two lanes each way never makes sense on a freeway, though you may need a third lane to accomodate entry and exit ramps — the current bridge size is more than adequate for a freeway, and the needs are elsewhere (local arterial connection, transit connection, freight rail connection).

Given the constraints of the freeway network in inner Portland, building this new bridge at the scale proposed would simply move the problem downstream. Doesn’t seem like a smart use of billions of dollars, does it?

The CRC would seem to be an ideal application for congestion pricing. This would encourage travelers in Vancouver destined for downtown Portland to use a high frequency MAX connection, particularly during peak periods where the tolls would be most expensive. Tolls would help cover a portion of the capital cost. Drivers who now make short, discretionary auto trips across the bridge (thereby, clogging the highway for longer haul travelers and freight traffic) would experience a strong price signal to adjust their trip making patterns. If the price were set to continually manage demand on the bridge at all hours, the resulting bridge could likely be reduced significantly in scope, thereby saving taxpayer dollars, and of course time not stuck in congestion. And still, commuters could opt to drive and pay the toll at any time or take the attractive MAX option into downtown Portland for jobs and entertainment, which supports the investments that the Portland region has been making for several decades.

Is there any indication that a congestion pricing strategy might be considered, perhaps in tandem with the 205 bridge, especially given Portland’s long term sustainability goals and the USDOT/EPA/HUD emphasis on livability? A challenging, multi-modal, bi-state issue such as this is exactly why we desperately need a visionary new national transportation policy with that lays out a vision, with principles, goals, and metrics that would help ensure that smarter decisions are made on projects like the CRC. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for that…

The new Port Mann Bridge is currently being constructed and is divided into express and collector/distributor lanes. It is a 10 lane crossing, with 6 lanes comprising through lanes (1 HOV and 2 express lanes each way) and 4 lanes comprising collector/distributor lanes. The collector distributor lanes split “outside” (east and west) of the two interchanges that flank the bridge – so that the collector/distributor lanes will serve local traffic and act as an arterial road bridge while the express lanes serve the freeway and proceed without merging and dodging cased by the local interchanges.
In essence it is two bridges in one structure.
(That’s easier than finding local funding for an arterial road bridge)