This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Transportation David Bragdon Takes Down CRC
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Thu, May 20, 2010 at 10:20 AM
Lame duck Metro Council President David Bragdon didn't wave protest signs outside the first meeting of the Columbia River Crossing "independent review panel" yesterday but, boy, did he lay the smackdown inside. It seems like he's going to do everything he can his last few months in office to change the course of the $3 billion megabridge to Vancouver. His testimony articulately sums up the reasons the CRC is shot:
- David Bragdon and Sam Adams at a CRC meeting last year
Successful mega-projects elsewhere, whatever their other merits or demerits, ranging from Boston’s Big Dig to Denver’s international airport, only come to fruition when the coalition in support of them consistently expands — and those coalitions only expand when issues are addressed in a meaningful, inclusive, and problem-solving manner, and a variety of disciplines and creative solutions are brought to bear.He spelled out the problems with the current bridge plan in four bullet points:By contrast, proposed mega-projects tend to stall, as this one has, and fail, when they are imposed from above, are sold simply on the basis of platitudes not based in fact or financial rigor, or are the product of one agency’s or one professional discipline’s toolbox to the exclusion of all the other tools in the transportation toolbox.
After my nearly three years of involvement — again, three years which started with me as a vote in favor of the conditional LPA [Locally Preferred Alternative] — my reluctant conclusion is that the current CRC proposal by the state highway divisions dramatically fails both of those basic tests: it has not been proven to be a cost-effective solution to the many challenges in this corridor, and it has not been planned and developed in an innovative or inclusive manner.
• Concerns that the size and management of the widened freeway bridge would simply send the traffic bottleneck farther south into Portland.
• Lack of "21st century forecasting and modeling techniques" to show how the expanded freeway would create more incentive for single occupancy car trips.
• Interchanges that "fit the context of our neighborhoods (i.e. don't squash Hayden Island)
• And, of course, a finance plan that reflects what Oregonians and Washingtonians will actually agree to pay for the project.
Ouch.
Most Commented on Blogtown, PDX
-
BREAKING: Here's Portland's New Transportation Director by Dirk VanderHart
-
Win Tickets to Blumesday! by Alison Hallett
-
Bill Nye: The Science Activist Guy by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey
-
Warped Tour: A Meditation on Aging by Alison Hallett
-
What About Bob? Your Mad Men Recap by Jacob Schraer
-
Portland's Former City Forester Says City Officials Tricked Him. He's Suing. by Dirk VanderHart
-
Hitler on the Mounted Patrol: "Everyone Loves Horsies Even Though They Have No Functional Value" by Denis C. Theriault
-
A Cyborg Anthology Edited by a Cyborg by Erik Henriksen
-
Go Read This Loooong, Gooood Patton Oswalt Piece on Joke Theft, Rape Jokes, and Heckling by Cienna Madrid
-
NOT EVEN JOKING: Michelle Shocked Is Playing 2013 San Francisco Pride by Kelly O
Our Friends
- UrbanHonking
- Culture Shock
- Portland Roundball Society
- Steph Cassano
- Cort and Fatboy
- Street Roots
- Powell's Books Blog
- Portland Transport
- Portland Afoot
- Bike Portland
- Eater: PDX
- Portland Food and Drink
- Mr. Movie
- Sunday Softball
- BlueOregon
- Sightline Institute
- Ultra: Arts Portland
- Bitch Magazine
- Blazer's Edge
- Reading Local: Portland
- Portland Food Carts
- Stumptown Vegans
Our Enemies
RSSGoing to Seattle?
