ODOT pulls plug on CRC

Columbia River Crossing: ODOT to pull plug, bridge project is dead
The Oregonian, March 7, 2014
By Jeff Manning

Better get used to the current I-5 Columbia River drawbridge. The proposed new Columbia River Crossing died a quiet death in Salem Friday when the Oregon Legislature took no action to keep it going. (AP Photo/The Columbian)

Excerpts:
The Oregon Legislature, through its inaction, has put the final stake in the heart of the Columbia River Crossing.

The Oregon Department of Transportation announced Friday it is closing the I-5 bridge project's offices, issuing cease-work orders to its many contractors and shutting the project down entirely by May 31.

The end comes after more than a decade of work and nearly $190 million worth of planning, engineering, financial and traffic forecasting and other work.


In the end, boosters failed to convince skeptics that the project would adequately address the crossing's chronic congestion, or that they could pull off the project without disastrous cost overruns and other problems.
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It appears people are seeing through the claims made by transit supporters and their attempts to make this plan happen no matter what the faults in the design, or objections of the public.  There's a reason they say "Follow the money"  -- the federal money promised for the project was just too much for Oregon politicians and lobbyists to give up, but without the Washington legislature on board, it was just not going to happen.  There are better ideas out there, but it will take some time before the public trusts that government knows how to do things simply and economically.