Frequently, the local fishwrapper is so painfully dense...

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...it's the only paper I know that clanks when you drop it.

As most people who drive anywhere in this area know, replacing a 3 lane bridge with a 3 lane bridge, entirely for the purpose of bringing loot rail into Vancouver/Clark County is a colossal waste of money.

Any expenditure that has no real impact on freight mobility and congestion is a waste of money, and those behind this thuggery are well aware of that fact.

The local cancer on our community knows this; they are eager to task the 65,000 commuters with additional thousands of dollars in tolls while they, themselves, won't have to pay... and so they finally admit as much with the publication of the findings of a study... as if a study somehow supplants common sense:

Would Rose Quarter stifle benefit from new bridge?

Study finds that there is congestion where I-5 and I-84 meet

Erik Robinson
Columbian staff writer
Saturday, June 5, 2010

Critics of a new Interstate 5 Bridge argue that the multibillion-dollar project may well ease congestion at the river, only to shift the morning traffic jam a few miles south.

They contend it doesn’t make sense to spend as much as $3.6 billion to widen the
freeway in one location, especially if it compounds a notorious traffic chokepoint farther south in the center of Portland.

“Are you creating system failure elsewhere?” Metro council President David Bragdon asked this year.

Sure enough, a new study of 100 “freight significant highway locations” nationwide identifies the confluence of I-5 and Interstate 84 near the Rose Garden arena among America’s most notorious traffic bottlenecks. The American Transportation Research Institute, which compiled the ratings, did not evaluate the I-5 bridge.

The Rose Quarter, at No. 30 on the list, was the only location studied in Oregon. It fared worse than three spots monitored in and around Seattle.

Yet Oregon transportation officials have no immediate plans to fix that stretch.

Instead, the overwhelming focus of money, time and attention has been on replacing the I-5 bridge between Vancouver and Portland. The project also would improve four miles of freeway and extend Portland’s light rail transit system into downtown Vancouver.

More:

Why do we need a study to state the obvious? How many more millions will we have to waste before those shoving this crap sandwich down our throats finally get it?

Or is it that those pushing this the hardest really don't give a damn about us?
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