I’ve been mulling over the recommendations of the Columbia River Crossing Independent Review Panel, and the reactions to the report in the community, thinking about how this thing is going to move forward. It seems to me that there are two likely outcomes: 1) Collapse of the project, and a restart at some point in…

Metro President David Bragdon and Portland Mayor Sam Adams released a joint statement earlier today calling for a Columbia River Crossing project that builds a bridge capable of holding 10 lanes with full shoulders, but only striping the bridge for 8 lanes at opening. They also call for a revised interchange strategy for Hayden Island…

Most of the local press coverage tends to present the Independent Review Panel report on the Columbia River Crossing as an “endorsement” or “approval” of the project. While there is no question that IPR concurs that a project is necessary, the report is actually fairly critical, not the rubber stamp that many of skeptics feared.…

August 9th is the last scheduled meeting of the Columbia River Crossing project “Sponsors Council”, the group of local elected and agency officials that has been about the only check on this project. In the view of the project, the Council has served its purpose and is finished. Indeed, I’m told the project has gone…

The (PDF, 2.3M) recommendations of the Independent Review Panel for the Columbia River Crossing are out. I have not had time to review them yet, but both the Governor and Mayor Adams are already spinning it.