Is the stupidity of the bridge cheerleaders genetic?

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So, another "have to build it the way the paper wants it" article in the Cancer on the Community (aka, The Columbian) website.

We actually HAVE 6 through lanes; they WANT 6 thru lanes... but they feel compelled to dress it up with 4 wasted lanes... all to bring loot rail into Vancouver (which is, of course, the only reason to replace an otherwise perfectly functional, safe, serviceable bridge) so we go out and pay consultants to tell the CRC what they want to hear (The very idea that they're not doing any one of a half dozen better, cheaper, more realistic ideas is proof of that) an voila'! Any smaller, cheaper version of the bridge isn't good enough.

Well, the moron writing this article tells us:

“The conclusion that jumped out to us was a capacity issue,” said Ted Rutledge, URS transportation manager based in Denver. “Both northbound and outhbound[sic] were really at or over capacity. So based on that alone, it’s not going to meet the need.”

Well, the "experts" have already shown that a new bridge with their fantasy 12 lanes won't do any better, and we've known that for years:

Congestion on new I-5 bridge back to today's level by 2030, study finds

Planners and elected officials who back the project are aware of the shortcomings, but say it's better than doing nothing

FACTBOX • I-5 bridge:

Monday, July 07, 2008

DYLAN RIVERA

The Oregonian Staff

A $4.2 billion project designed to relieve the Interstate 5 bridge bottleneck will -- in two decades -- return congestion to about the same level drivers experience today.

Less than 30 mph traffic at the new Columbia River bridge will thwart trucks and commuters alike for 3.5 hours each morning by 2030, up from about two hours today. And thousands driving south into Portland every day will stack up for miles behind the already difficult Rose Quarter bottleneck -- a separate problem altogether.

Much more:

So, here, we have an outcome anyone with 2 firing brain synapses could arrive at for free, unlike the tens of millions that have been wasted for the billions they WANT to waste that has vaporized already:

NO bridge, of ANY size, will do ANYTHING to decrease congestion or increase freight mobility; which, along with safety (which, according to Don Wagner, doesn't apply here) stand as the only justifications to spend transportation dollars in the first place.

But the fact is that no other solution was EVER acceptable to the downtown mafia, who want to blow a $100,000,000 per year hole in our local economy for tolls to pay for a horrific, multi-billion dollar waste of money because THEY want loot rail in downtown Vancouver while WE have to pay for it.

The obvious solution to addressing bridge capacity is to build additional bridges... and screw loot rail.

We don't want it, we don't need it, we've crushed it at the polls, and if my brother in law had any guts, we'd be crushing it at the polls AGAIN this November to put an end to this turd.

So, The Steaming Crap Pile again ignores the massive opposition to ANY bridge replacement idea as formulated, and they do so under the guise of their self-serving brand of agenda-furthering "journalism."