Here we go! We’re going to dive into a detailed discussion of the Columbia River Crossing options that are under consideration to advance into the Environmental Impact Statement phase of the study process.
We’ll be looking at each of the 37 different components (split into about 10 different groups). Staff has evaluated each of these based on six questions (only the first two apply to transit projects):
Q1. Does the component increase vehicular capacity or decrease vehicular demand within the Bridge Influence
Area?
Q2. Does the component improve transit performance within the Bridge Influence Area?
Q3. Does the component improve freight mobility within the Bridge Influence Area?
Q4. Does the component improve safety and decrease vulnerability to incidents within the Bridge Influence
Area?
Q5. Does the component improve bicycle and pedestrian mobility within the Bridge Influence Area?
Q6. Does the component reduce seismic risk of the I-5 Columbia River crossing?
You are welcome to agree or disagree with the staff assessment on each of these, or suggest why these are the wrong criteria to apply.
I’m also going to suggest a criterion that I think is missing from the list above. In the spirit of Oregon’s Transportation Planning Rule:
Q7. Does the component reduce reliance on a single mode of transportation (i.e., single-occupancy automobiles)?
The comment period from last week’s open houses continues through April 20th. So comments on the posts in this series will be open until until the end of the day on the 19th (Wednesday). At the end of the day, I will close the comments and submit the whole bundle to the project team to be included in the public record from the open houses.
The first group of components will be posted in a few hours. Have at it!
Here we go! We’re going to dive into a detailed discussion of the Columbia River Crossing options that are under consideration to advance into the Environmental Impact Statement phase of the study process.
We’ll be looking at each of the 37 different components (split into about 10 different groups). Staff has evaluated each of these based on six questions (only the first two apply to transit projects):
Q1. Does the component increase vehicular capacity or decrease vehicular demand within the Bridge Influence
Area?
Q2. Does the component improve transit performance within the Bridge Influence Area?
Q3. Does the component improve freight mobility within the Bridge Influence Area?
Q4. Does the component improve safety and decrease vulnerability to incidents within the Bridge Influence
Area?
Q5. Does the component improve bicycle and pedestrian mobility within the Bridge Influence Area?
Q6. Does the component reduce seismic risk of the I-5 Columbia River crossing?
You are welcome to agree or disagree with the staff assessment on each of these, or suggest why these are the wrong criteria to apply.
I’m also going to suggest a criterion that I think is missing from the list above. In the spirit of Oregon’s Transportation Planning Rule:
Q7. Does the component reduce reliance on a single mode of transportation (i.e., single-occupancy automobiles)?
The comment period from last week’s open houses continues through April 20th. So comments on the posts in this series will be open until until the end of the day on the 19th (Wednesday). At the end of the day, I will close the comments and submit the whole bundle to the project team to be included in the public record from the open houses.
The first group of components will be posted in a few hours. Have at it!
Comments have been closed and will be submitted to the project public record. If you have additional thoughts, please comment on the open thread for this purpose.