The I-5 Bridge connecting Oregon and Washington is one of the most important transportation corridors in the country, and after 100 years of service it needs to be replaced. But local and regional travel needs look very different in the 21st century than they did when the bridge first opened in 1917. The design for a new I-5 Interstate Bridge is being developed right now, and the Oregon Sierra Club is actively working in coalition with numerous environmental and equity groups through the Just Crossing Alliance to make this replacement the most environmentally responsible and sustainable bridge possible. Not surprisingly, we have major concerns over where this bridge project is headed and there’s more work to do.
Each day, the Portland and Vancouver Metro areas are subjected to a tremendous amount of motor
vehicle travel. Imagine a gas station attendant commuting from her home in Gresham to her job in Lake Oswego. Neighbors in northeast Portland commute to Intel—separately. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, each day sixty-four thousand people in Clark County commute to Oregon, while eleven thousand in Oregon head north. Thirty-one thousand folks in Clackamas County commute to Washington County, while twenty-three thousand go in the reverse direction. Highway planners call this commuting a “need.” But do we really need that many cars and trucks causing congestion and pollution?
Commute congestion is largely the product of a century of over-subsidizing roads and highways, along with poor land-use and economic development decisions that continue to make cities and communities dependent on cars. A better way would have been to design our communities and economies (home-work-play balance) in a way that minimizes the need for auto travel, then build the infrastructure needed to support that more environmentally sensible model. But sadly that’s not the reality we have today. Efforts to instill more environmentally responsible land use and economic development approaches have been slowly taking root, but will take decades to unfold. The designers of a new interstate bridge need to address regional travel pressures as they are today while also designing a bridge that pushes the region toward a better environmental and equity future. A hard and complex task.
Our IBR Coalition is concerned that the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project designers are busy expanding lanes and sketching proposals before honestly and accurately evaluating what our future travel needs will be. That is one of the major flaws we are working to fix in the IBR process. One example is the integration of tolling, or “congestion pricing”. While tolling has equity concerns that must be addressed, it is also one of the few actions that would significantly reduce the amount of peak travel across the I-5 bridge. Congestion pricing would reduce the travel demand on the bridge and that reduction in “need” should be accounted for up front in the early design stages. With tolling, a much smaller, more environmentally responsible bridge would be called for.
The IBR designers’ vision for future travel is also based on old data and outdated thinking. Society is changing, and the new bridge proposal should reflect these changes, such as: newly-embraced work-from-home lifestyles, the critical need to reduce climate change-inducing pollution and air toxics, the need for better land use strategies and community design, and increased awareness of equity concerns. Using old data and old ways of thinking for a new bridge design makes no sense, like the Queen of Hearts declaring to Alice in Wonderland, “Sentence first, verdict afterwards,” to which Alice replied, “Stuff and nonsense!”
We have major concerns over the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) design being put forward by the IBR project managers, and there is more work for the Coalition to do. In the coming months there will be several critical milestones where we will try to influence the final bridge design. In 2023 the Oregon legislature will be considering a $1billion dollar funding package for the bridge. The run up to the legislative session provides us an opportunity to explain our concerns to elected officials and advocate for a better path forward. The Just Crossing Alliance is developing expert teams on finance, fundraising, policy, and legislative strategy to prepare us for meetings with state, local and regional elected officials. Also in 2023, the IBR project team will conduct an environmental impact analysis of the current locally prefered design option. That Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be open for public comment and we expect stakeholders from across the region to weigh in.
Why do we care about the IBR project? Reasons range from larger environmental principles to practical local level concerns. For example, expanding the bridge’s capacity will likely induce more traffic, resulting in increases in pollution and congestion. A new bridge may be necessary for earthquake preparedness, but a bigger bridge, by itself, will not solve the region's transportation problems. In addition, more capacity across the river may create pressure for even more expansions of I-5 north and south, with consequent sprawl and pollution. At a local level, a bigger bridge may sharply degrade the Hayden Island and Vancouver shoreline communities, including small businesses and lower income residents. For these reasons and more the IBR Coalition is working for the most environmentally responsible and equitable bridge possible.
We do see some hope as our coalition works hard to push the IBR design in the right direction. And there’s hope from new rules by Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC), insisting that Metro and the other regional transportation planners be responsive to Oregon’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.
As for the Interstate Bridge project, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a new I-5 bridge that helps move the region in the right direction toward reducing dependency on cars and petroleum, improves the climate and public health, and better serves the needs of everyone in our communities, not just the needs of single-occupancy drivers. As you can imagine, getting the right bridge is not an easy task, and our goals for an environmentally responsible bridge will be met or not depending on how the final bridge is designed. Yes, a new bridge must serve the transportation and commerce needs of the 21st century. But the answer to meeting that challenge is not simply building more lanes for cars and trucks. A new bridge must also help limit and lessen travel demand, reduce greenhouse gasses and toxic air pollution, serve the needs of equity communities, expand multi-modal travel options for light-rail, transit, bikes, and walking. It should be an inspiration and tool to leverage more electric vehicles, inspire better local and regional land use decisions, expand telecommuting and other commute reduction options, and so much more.
Our vision of a better bridge and a better future requires that we work with city and IBR planners for the best possible design. We need an environmentally sustainable approach to the Interstate Bridge Replacement—not just, as Alice said, “stuff and nonsense”.
If you are interested in participating in the effort for a climate and community-friendly bridge, contact Debra at conservationcommittee@oregon.sierraclub.org.