Oregon’s biggest boondoggle lurches ahead

By Richard Leonetti

The biggest spending boondoggle Oregon has ever seen is stumbling forward like a drunk to build a new Interstate Bridge.

I-5 is our most important conduit for moving people and commerce in trucks and containers, but replacing a 3 lane bridge with a new 3 lane bridge and light rail line will not fix the bottleneck. Even the most optimistic projections say that light rail will move but a tiny fraction of people and no commerce.

Looking forward, even a few years, 5 or 6 lanes at a minimum are needed (see I-205). By adding lanes and eliminating light rail, the cost comes down enough to eliminate the $1.6 billion tax–i.e.tolls–and the unmentioned payroll tax increase to operate the new light rail extension.

If we are going to spend billions let us at least solve the transportation bottleneck problem and do it with a more economically priced bridge. Please, Governor and/or Legislators, stop the dumb spending and buy us a bridge that fixes the transportation bottleneck.