The 3rd Bridge issue.

I'm all about transportation projects that work.

Whatever the next project is, it has to be a project that actually makes a difference when it's completed.

The massive rip off of a scam would have wasted several billion dollars while cursing Clark County with tolls of $2000 a year plus for 45 years while infecting us with loot rail and providing a bridge with 6 through lanes... essentially what we have now.

The lessons?

First, whatever project is built must have the support of the people.

Instead of taking the Tim "The Liar" Leave-it/Steve Stuart/WADOT gambit and ramming this garbage down our throat; hold a vote.  Get the backing of the people.

Instead of lying to us and excluding us and attacking us... tell the truth, sell the vision to us and get our backing.

Instead of allowing us to get bent over and screwed by David Evans and Associates, find some other firm.  There's more incest downtown then there is in Cougar.

When next we have a so-called "Locally Preferred Alternative,"  give us the chance to vote on it instead of the hand-picked crew that did what they were told with bogus considerations as a smoke screen while they ignored us by design.

Second, the next project must have the singular focus of relieving the pressure we have now on the I-5 corridor.

And that is why I will oppose a bridge off 164th or 192nd, since that will make no difference to the I-5 corridor.

Commissioner Madore is insisting on an East County Bridge.

He tells us:

• David Madore A new west county bridge, although needed would not be feasible yet due to the need to build a brand new major corridor. It will have to wait for a future time.

I'm sorry, but this is unacceptable.

The expenditure of precious dollars for transportation must be limited to three main purposes:

1.  Safety.

Where the CRC Scammers lost with their safety claim is that safety took a distant 2nd or 3rd to light rail: the claim that the I-5 Bridge is unsafe is disproven every day it's open.  That it IS open is proof that it IS safe.

Making roads safer as a response to accident frequency is a sound expenditure of dollars.  Wastes of money, like the two hundred million or so plus spent on intersections over SR 500 are just that: wastes.

2.  Congestion, or, alternatively, freight mobility.

This is the next place the CRC Scam lost: as it is now, there's stop and go congestion on the bridge we have; wasting these billions would have effectively accomplished a one minute reduction in southbound commute times, resulting in paying a horrific, ever-increasing toll and THEN experiencing stop and go congestion as a result.

That, friends, is idiocy wrapped in a moron.

3.   Freight mobility, or, alternatively, congestion.

For many of the commercial interests in the region, increasing freight mobility is the critical element to transportation projects. Unfortunately, many of these interests were sucked into the CRC Scam because those shilling for this lie made promises that were false... and they were believed by these gullible companies such as Fred Meyer, among others.

The result?  These trucks now sit in traffic.  Had this crap pile been built, they'd have had the privilege of paying as much as a $20 toll for the privilege of, you guessed it, sitting in traffic.

With the saturation of the I-5 corridor, the primary effort of large (hundreds of million dollars) expenditures in this area must be to relieve pressure on the I-5.  A bridge east of the 205 bridge does nothing to accomplish that.

Would an East County bridge be easier to build?

Absolutely.  The logistic and topography would make it a snap.

Commissioner Madore has also told us:.

David Madore June 27  New life after the CRC – New East County Bridge

As the CRC Light Rail Tolling boondoggle gasps its last breath, we can focus on smarter solutions by building much more practical infrastructure that relieves congestion and provides for the free flow of interstate commerce.

With new leadership, it will be possible for our two states to build roads and bridges like the rest of the country does, not through blank-check bureaucracies, but through private industry. A third toll-free bridge across the mighty Columbia that connects SR-14 at 192nd Ave to Marine Drive, Sandy Bvd, Airport Way and I-84 at exit 13 in Gresham can be built with new leadership. (My emphasis)

America knows how to build great infrastructure at a fraction of the cost. We did it just 30 years ago when we built the toll-free, debt-free I-205 Glenn Jackson Bridge for less money than our bureaucracy already wasted on this boondoggle.

Is it realistic that any bridge can be built without tolls?  I'm not sure.  And I would be supportive of tolls on the needed 3rd and/or 4th bridges.

For readers who know me and my positions on the CRC:

The Columbian blows it: In Our View: Delta Park Dilemma - June 16, 2005

and my fight against the horrific, decades-long, ever-increasing tolls starting at around $8 might believe I'm opposed to tolls, period.

Well, I'm not.

In this case, tolls on both the 3rd or 4th bridge, while not ideal, are something that needs to be looked at.  And I suggest that because as long as the tolls are kept off the 205 and the I-5, that would make use of the new bridges voluntary and their tolls, voluntary.

There was nothing "voluntary" about the CRC Scam.  Chances are that Oregon will toll any effort to build a new bridge once they agree to one.  But the payment of such a toll, again, would be voluntary as commuters decide if saving time is worth it.

There is no doubt that a West County bridge and road to the NW Cornelius Pass/ Hiway 30 interchange which would then go to Hiway 26, completely bypassing Portland, and relieving much of the congestion on I-5 without requiring any changes to Rose Quarter for the near future would be the better option.  Commissioner Madore acknowledges that such a bridge will be needed in the future by telling us not that it's a bad idea, but that it will "have to wait for a future time."

There is no time in the future for a West County Bridge that will be easier or cheaper than now.  "Easier" doesn't always equate to "better."

I backed Commissioners Madore and Mielke's play on the CRC Scam to the hilt.

Now, on an East County Bridge?

Not so much.  Not when I stand by my philosophy that it's better to do nothing than it is the wrong thing.