Federal money is still available for the proposed Columbia River Crossing, according to Gov. John Kitzhaber, who said Friday that the controversial bridge and highway project remains on track.
Kitzhaber told reporters and editorial writers at The Oregonian that his office had been in contact recently withAnthony Foxx, U.S. secretary of transportation.
The governor’s comments in response to a reporter’s question mean that a pot of money called the New Starts fund remains available, contrary to earlier statements by officials who said that Oregon would be too late to apply if it waited until next year. CRC proponents are counting on $850 million from the fund for the light-rail portion of the $2.6 billion project, which would replace the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River between Portland and Vancouver.
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Forget the cost of the entire undertaking called the CRC, the $850 million in no way covers the cost of light rail over land just to get to the river. And the people in Vancouver have said they don't want light rail, and the Washington State legislature refused to fund the bridge, so the rail line would be a train to nowhere - for $850 million. Since rail transit is what the federal government is pushing with generous funding, we shall have rail. He who pays the piper...
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