(The Center Square) – Gov. Bob Ferguson announced Tuesday that construction on the Interstate 5 bridge replacement project across the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington will begin in 2028.
The megaproject has been in the works for nearly two decades and cost estimates have exploded over time with design now, including light rail across the bridge.
“We’re going to build this bridge. That’s gonna happen. There’s just too much at stake for any other option,” Ferguson said during a Vancouver press conference, surrounded by lawmakers, city officials from Oregon and Washington and representatives from the building trades.
The Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) team had been anxious to break ground later this year as one of the federal grants for the project will expire in September if progress isn’t made.
It’s unclear if that grant is in jeopardy with construction not getting underway until 2028.
“More than 140,000 vehicles use the interstate bridge every single day. The current bridge is not built to modern standards and is at risk of collapse in an earthquake,” Ferguson said explaining that timber supports for the bridge are buried in sand that can liquify during an earthquake.
The green light to move ahead at this point came courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard last week, when it was announced USCG had agreed to a fixed span, instead of a draw bridge.
“That movable span, which currently opens and closes for river traffic causes backups on the highway,” Ferguson said. “Additionally, based on recent projections, a movable span would have cost an additional $1.7 billion compared to a fixed span bridge.”
Ferguson said the initial phase of the project has been scaled back, such that only replacing the two spans and adding light rail is the focus, at least for now because costs have skyrocketed.
That means upgrades to interchanges along a five-mile stretch of the nearby interstate and three new bridges to Hayden Island from the Oregon side will be pushed out.
“We are all committed to moving forward with a core set of projects to replace our bridge with a modern fixed span bridge that includes light rail. We will continue to work toward the larger corridor down the road in phases as funding becomes available,” Ferguson said.
Rep. John Ley, R-Vancouver, opposed the project.
“It’s an outrageous boondoggle,” he said in a Jan 23 interview with The Center Square.
Ley, who is also a member of the bi-state and bipartisan committee responsible for keeping tabs on the project, called the current design “ridiculous”.
“I filed a bill calling for a performance audit of the entire program,” Ley said. “Not only do we want to know, is the money properly accounted for? But are they doing what they’re supposed to? Is the general engineering contractor properly performing for that level of expertise, let alone the subcontractors. They’ve spent 10% of their money on PR and communications.”
His bill did not receive a public hearing.
The IBR still has some federal environmental review hurdles to jump, but officials at the Tuesday press conference said they expect those reviews for the first phase of construction to be complete by mid-2026.
Ley said there is no justifiable reason for extending light rail over the new bridge.
“They gave us unbelievably exaggerated transit ridership in order to make the excuse they needed light rail and high-capacity transit as part of the project,” Ley said. “They’re replacing a three-lane bridge with another three-lane bridge. Ridiculous. They hate cars, and they love transit. We don’t want a big dig, like Boston, and we don’t want a California high speed rail that wastes huge amounts of the people’s money and delivers nothing.”
Ferguson said light rail will be included in the new span despite added costs and questions about ridership.
“That literal and figurative train has left the station,” he said. “We’re going forward and we’re going forward with light rail. Nobody gets everything they want, but it’s in there and we’re moving forward and I’m not interested in looking backwards. We’re building this damn bridge, that’s happening.”
Even with an initial construction phase final design agreed upon and a timeline for beginning the work in 2028, the project is expected to take six to seven years before completion when cars could drive across.
Long before construction begins, drivers will be paying for the project.
Tolls for the new I-5 bridge on the existing bridge are expected to begin as early as late in 2026, with rates set anywhere from $1.50 to $4.70, depending on the time of day and traffic volume.
