On a cycling vacation in Italy a few years ago (OK, more years than I would care to admit) I encountered the lovely cultural institution of cyclists shouting “Forza!” (pronounced “fortza”) at each other (typically from someone coming down a hill to someone heading up the hill). It translates as “fortitude” or “strength”.
That was my immediate reaction to Joe Cortright’s op-ed piece in the Sunday Oregonian, once again laying out the plain economics of the Columbia River Crossing.
The Oregonian editorial board has an anemic response on Monday, suggesting the two Governors need to intervene since the Congressional delegations in both states are keeping their distance from this stinker.
Forza, Joe!
9 responses to “Forza!”
Well said! Unfortunately, Gov. Gregoire already has two unneeded megaprojects: the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, a $4B shortcut to Redmond; and the Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel replacement, a $3.8B bypass of downtown. She is committed to these projects, at the expense of rail and transit projects. Her transportation directer recently closed the state passenger rail office, merging it into the freight rail office and cutting fundng for critical rail programs. She would do well to take lessons from such “progressive” states as Texas, North Carolina, or Utah. They at least seam to understand the importance of transit.
states as Texas, North Carolina, or Utah..
Isn’t Texas building a bunch of toll roads, and new Interstate bypasses and upgrades throughout the state? Isn’t North Carolina finishing I-74 and I-485?
Texas is no model for anything, having dismally failed to fund rail. NC may be building highways but they haven’t taken any money away from rail funding and have been pretty consistently solid on transit funding.
I don’t know much about North Carolina, but maybe we could take a lesson from South Carolina.
The Cooper River Bridge ( 2.4 miles long and eight lanes)was built for about $700 million. And even historically they kept the costs lower (please no Jim Crow remarks):
In 1966 a two mile bridge was built for $15 million.
A 2.7 mile bridge was built in 1929, before the Great Crash even, for $6 million.
http://www.cooperriverbridge.org/history.shtml
Of course, Oregon and Washington are used to blowing money. Maybe that’s why the CRC hovers around four billion.
While I’m not about to defend the CRC; the $4 billion price tags isn’t just for a bridge. It’s for a bridge, and about 5 miles of I-5 redesign–new interchanges, new alignment, the works.
And there may well be difference in law that permit things to be built cheaper in SC–it’s a rather union-unfriendly state, so it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that construction workers make considerably less.
But the explosion in construction costs over the years–due to tighter environmental restrictions, increased materials costs, increased labor costs, more stringent design standards, more red tape just to DESIGN the thing–has been noted many times, and is not unique to Oregon or Washington.
Yes, a large chunk of the CRC projected price tag is for the non-bridge portions. The transit component has oft been noted, but there’s also the massive interchanges, 21-lanes wide at one point over Hayden Island according to preliminary illustrations.
And just why do we need all of those interchanges? Isn’t the bottom line that the Powers That Be are trying to squeeze more into that route. Even their own report (2005) say it is at its limit.
I agree it is outlandish.
But on the Cooper River Bridge:
Bridging Worlds
A similar safety and job-training programs, run by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), enabled low-income residents of Charleston, SC, to raise their standards of living. At the site of the new Cooper River Bridge, the SCDOT ran a two-pronged program. The first was a two-week program including CPR, interpersonal skills, reading and math, construction terminology and job interview skills. Once applicants completed that, they began a journeyman year of working in a specific trade. Horrace Tobin, program director, cites a single mother who has gone through the program and got off federally assisted living. “She wants to be a crane operator,” he says.
The SCDOT also has established a transportation education institute that will offer 20 scholarships to inner-city children for local technical schools. Another program will offer college scholarships.
The Cooper River Bridge
It’s an entirely different situation altogether. That bridge’s cost doesn’t include the landings on either side, and the area on the east side is not really anything like Vancouver is as far as land acquisition needs. I haven’t seen an exact breakdown, but for the neighborhoods the CRC cuts through, it’s a fair guess it will have land costs that are exceptionally high.
All the interchanges are needed because according to Federal funding rules–if the project touches the freeway and wants federal funding, then the roadway has to be brought up to current federal design standards–the interchange distances are way too close for about a five mile stretch of freeway, from the Denver/Interstate Ave interchange on the OR side, to the SR500 interchange in Washington. Since most of those interchanges cannot be closed; the result is the tangled web of collector/distributor roads and interleaving ramps.
He who pays the piper calls the tune, after all.
Regarding the jobs program; that might be an interesting thing to do. Labor politics might interfere with such a thing here (and a cynic might suspect that South Carolina–whose government is against labor unions every bit as much as Oregon’s tends to support them–was trying to drive down wages in the construction industry there); though that subject is getting a bit off-topic.