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The Interstate Bridge (also Columbia River Interstate Bridge, I-5 Bridge, Portland-Vancouver Interstate Bridge, Vancouver-Portland Bridge) is a pair of nearly identical steel vertical-lift, Parker through-truss bridges that carry Interstate 5 traffic over the Columbia River between Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon in the United States.
The present-day northbound bridge opened to traffic in 1917 as a single bridge carrying two-way traffic. A second twin bridge, which carries southbound traffic, opened in 1958.<ref name="Wood-Wortman">Template:Cite book</ref> The twin bridges are each over Template:Convert long and carry three lanes of traffic. The bridges handle a combined 130,000 vehicles daily.<ref name="Wood-Wortman"/> It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, as the "Portland–Vancouver Highway Bridge".<ref name="oprd nrhp list">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Since 2005, several proposals for replacing the bridge have been produced and debated. The bridge is considered responsible for traffic congestion of both road and river vehicles. Plans for a replacement bridge, known as the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project, estimated to cost at least $3.4 billion, had come together by 2012 after many delays, but were very controversial, with both strong support and strong opposition.<ref name="oreg2013jul1">Template:Cite news</ref> In late June 2013, the CRC project was canceled, after the Washington state legislature declined to authorize funding for the project.<ref name="oreg2013jul1"/> The Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, a joint effort between ODOT, WSDOT, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Metro, Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council, the cities of Portland and Vancouver, the Port of Portland, and the Port of Vancouver USA, was relaunched in 2017.
First bridgeEdit
Before a permanent crossing existed between Portland and Vancouver, there was an overcrowded ferry system operated by Pacific Railway, Light & Power Co.
Plans for the original bridge began as early as 1912, with local efforts leading to an initial survey and bond measures totaling $2,000,000; $1.5 million contributed from Portland, and $500,000 from Vancouver. Waddell & Harrington were retained as the project's consulting engineers.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Construction on the bridge began in March 1915,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and the structure opened on February 14, 1917 at a final cost of $1.75 million (equivalent to $Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation-yearTemplate:Inflation-fn), which was shared between Clark and Multnomah counties.<ref name="wood-2001">Template:Cite book</ref> Clark County paid $500,000 and Multnomah County paid $1.25 million—probably proportional to population.<ref name="Horner">Horner, John B. (1919). "Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature". The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland.</ref>
The first bridge has a total of 13 steel spans, with three measuring Template:Convert in length and the remaining ten spans Template:Convert each.<ref name=Horner/> Piers sit atop pile caps on wooden pilings approximately 70 feet deep.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One of the Template:Convert spans is the lift span for allowing river traffic under the bridge.<ref name=Horner/> The lift span is capable of moving Template:Convert vertically,<ref name=bottenberg>Template:Cite book</ref> and provides Template:Convert of clearance below when fully raised.<ref name = "Wood-Wortman"/> The towers are Template:Convert tall, above the roadway.<ref name=bottenberg/>
The original paved roadway was Template:Convert wide and had a Template:Convert wide sidewalk.<ref name=Horner/> It was the first automobile bridge across the river between Washington and Oregon,<ref name=Horner/> and the second to span the river at all, after the Wenatchee Bridge of 1908.<ref name=Dorpat>Template:Cite book</ref> It was originally a toll bridge costing 5¢ per vehicle or per horse and rider,<ref name=bottenberg/> equivalent to $Template:Inflation in Template:Inflation-year. In 1928 the states of Washington and Oregon jointly purchased the bridge from the counties and discontinued tolling the following year.<ref name = "Wood-Wortman"/> The Oregon Department of Transportation became the lead agency responsible for the maintenance and operations of the structure.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Electric streetcars operated across the bridge from opening day in 1917<ref name="formally opened">"Columbia Span Is Formally Opened: Dream of Half Century Is Realized (subheadlines: Traffic Starts With Brilliant Ceremony on Bridge; Thousands Attend Affair)" Template:Webarchive. (February 15, 1917). The Morning Oregonian, p. 1.</ref> until 1940. The bridge's deck carried dual gauge track,<ref name=bottenberg/> to accommodate both Vancouver's standard gauge cars and Portland's Template:RailGauge gauge cars. Before the bridge, Portland had had a Vancouver streetcar line since 1893, but it ran to Hayden Island, where passengers transferred to a ferry owned by the street railway company to continue across the river to Vancouver.<ref name="thompson2010">Thompson, Richard (2010). Portland's Streetcar Lines, pp. 72–73, 77. Arcadia Publishing. Template:ISBN.</ref> Streetcar service across the Interstate Bridge ended on September 3, 1940.<ref name="thompson2010"/>
The bridge became part of then-new Interstate 5 in 1957.<ref name = "Wood-Wortman"/> It was previously part of U.S. Route 99 when that route was established in 1926.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Second bridge and renovationsEdit
Plans to address congestion on the first Interstate Bridge, which carried over 30,000 vehicles per day by 1948, were drawn after World War II by highway officials in Oregon. The chief highway engineer, R. H. Baldock, proposed a second span over the Columbia River after it was determined that expanding the existing bridge was not feasible. Several sites were proposed and surveyed, but ultimately a twinned span west of the original bridge was chosen in September 1950 by Oregon and Washington. The proposed reinstatement of the toll led to a lawsuit that was heard by the Washington Supreme Court in September 1953 and decided in the states' favor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1958, a $14.5 million ($Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation-year dollars) project created a second, almost identical span and doubled the capacity of the bridge. The new bridge was built with a "humpback" that provides Template:Convert of vertical clearance and minimizes bridge openings.<ref name=wood-2001/> Construction began in summer 1956,<ref name="oreg-1956jul17">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="oreg-1956sep2">Template:Cite news</ref> and the new, parallel bridge opened to traffic on July 1, 1958.<ref name="oreg-1958jul2">Template:Cite news</ref>
At the time the new bridge was opened, the old one was temporarily closed for rebuilding to give it a matching humpback section. When both bridges were first open concurrently, on January 8, 1960,<ref name="oreg-1960jan8">Template:Cite news</ref> each bridge became one-way (the new bridge for southbound traffic and the old one for northbound traffic) and tolls were reinstated at $0.20 for cars, $0.40 for light trucks, and $0.60 for heavy trucks and buses. The tolls were removed in 1966 after the construction expenses were paid off.<ref name = "Wood-Wortman"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A $3 million ($Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation-year dollars) upgrade to the lift cables, expansion joints, and a deck repaving was completed in 1990. The diesel generator used to power the lift was replaced in 1995 at a cost of $150,000. In 1999, the bridge was repainted at a cost of $17 million. A $10.8 million electrical upgrade was completed in mid-May 2005.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The damaged trunnion on the northbound bridge was replaced in September 1997, requiring a full shutdown of I-5 for six days; the project was completed ahead of the original schedule, which anticipated a 21-day closure.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A temporary commuter train was operated by Amtrak from Union Station in Portland and Vancouver station during peak hours.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The free trains had ten round trips and drew an average of 1,335 passengers per day; the low ridership was attributed to the isolated location of Vancouver's station.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The northbound bridge's trunnion was replaced in 2020 with all traffic carried on the southbound bridge, arranged into two lanes in the peak direction controlled by a zipper machine.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Vertical liftEdit
The bridge is Template:Convert long with a main span of Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The vertical lift provides Template:Convert of river clearance when fully opened. Openings last about ten minutes and occur between 20 and 30 times per month,<ref name="i5p">Template:Cite report</ref> or around 300 per year.<ref name="ptld-trib-25aug2023">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
Outside peak commuting times (6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m), marine traffic is granted right of way at the bridge by federal law (33 CFR 117.869).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2006, the six total lanes of the bridges carried 130,000 vehicles daily.<ref name = "Wood-Wortman"/> Full traffic capacity occurs four hours every day.<ref name="i5p"/>
The Interstate Bridge's name is a simple descriptive one based on its location, as a bridge connecting two states.<ref name="Wood-Wortman"/> In 1917, the new bridge gave its name to a Portland arterial street. Shortly before the bridge opened, a pair of streets through North Portland that were planned to be treated as the main route to and from the bridge, Maryland Avenue and Patton Avenue, were renamed Interstate Avenue.<ref name="oreg1916dec7">Template:Cite news</ref>
Replacement planningEdit
Columbia River Crossing (2005–2013)Edit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The bridge is frequently a bottleneck which impacts both traffic on the freeway, as well as on the river. The Oregon and Washington transportation departments are jointly studying how to replace the bridge. Both spans have been rated as "functionally obsolete," with sufficiency ratings of 18.3% and 49.4% for the original and second spans, respectively.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Initially, the estimated cost for a replacement bridge was around $2 billion,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but that number has climbed steadily to around $3.4 billion.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> An independent study in 2010 estimated the full cost to be closer to $10 billion.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Design of a replacement (especially a fixed-span bridge) is complicated by the existence of a railroad drawbridge crossing the Columbia a short distance downriver (on the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6), which constrains the location of the shipping channel; and by approach paths to Portland International Airport in Portland and to Pearson Field in Vancouver, which limit the height of any new structure. Some have proposed replacing the bridge in a different location. There were originally 12 transportation plans that were being studied to improve and expand the Interstate 5 crossing of the Columbia River.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In late 2006, four of these plans were selected for a final proposal, along with a fifth no-build option.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Columbia River Crossing project's six local partner agencies selected a replacement I-5 bridge and light rail extension to Clark College as the project's Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) in 2008.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
There is also a longstanding debate as to whether or not a new bridge would include a MAX Light Rail line, express buses, or bus rapid transit. During his 2007 "State of the City" address, Vancouver mayor Royce Pollard stated Template:Cquote
In December 2007, Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski advocated for a new bridge, publicly endorsing the Oregon Business Plan's proposal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2008, as fuel prices increased and project cost estimates soared, many in the area began questioning whether the project is worth the costs. In addition, many on the Portland side of the river fear that a 12-lane highway bridge to Vancouver, which many also believe has virtually no land use restrictions, will encourage suburban sprawl and development north of the river.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Further concerns over the 12-lane "Columbia River Crossing" (CRC) proposal include its failure to examine critical environmental impacts, such as damage to Clark County's drinking water supply, endangered fish habitat in the Columbia, and air pollution in North Portland.
In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency found that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the CRC had failed to adequately cover these issues, as well as the potential induced demand for suburban sprawl. In a letter to CRC planners, the EPA wrote that "There was no indication (in the CRC environmental impact statement) of how these vulnerable populations might be impacted by air pollution, noise, diesel construction vehicles and increased traffic", referring to minority communities in North Portland.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In June 2013, the Washington Legislature voted against further funding of the CRC.<ref name="oreg2013jul1"/> On June 29, Oregon Governor Kitzhaber directed the CRC to shut down operations.
Interstate Bridge Replacement Program (2019–present)Edit
The relaunched Interstate Bridge Replacement Program is a joint effort between ODOT, WSDOT, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Metro, Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council, the cities of Portland and Vancouver, the Port of Portland, and the Port of Vancouver USA.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Joint Oregon-Washington Legislative Action Committee was formed by the Washington legislature in 2017 to study a bridge replacement, but initially had no Oregon representation for a year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The new committee was formed to prevent $140 million in federal funding allocated for the CRC from being recalled after a deadline, which was extended to 2025.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In April 2019, the Washington legislature approved $17.5 million to establish a project office to conduct pre-design and planning work, which was followed by a matching contribution from the Oregon Transportation Commission in August.<ref name="Columbian-Again19">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A new timeline for the project, with the start of environmental review in 2020 and construction by 2025, was approved by the joint committee in late 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The replacement bridge's design is unspecified, with discussions about the inclusion of light rail, lane configurations, and investigating a third crossing all under consideration.<ref name="Columbian-Again19"/> Former Michigan Department of Transportation deputy director Greg Johnson was appointed as the bridge program administrator in June 2020.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Several alternative ideas have been proposed, including an immersed tube tunnel, a third bridge, and a bascule bridge favored by the U.S. Coast Guard, but have been rejected for their drawbacks and cost.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:As of, the project is estimated to cost $5.5 billion to $7.5 billion.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The locally preferred alternative selected in 2022 is an eight-lane bridge with a light rail guideway on the west side and several modified interchanges.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The U.S. Coast Guard requested an alternative design with a drawbridge to preserve the clearance for river traffic, which would be lowered by Template:Convert if the locally preferred alternative was built.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2025 or early 2026. Tolls will be implemented on the Oregon side of the existing bridge to help fund the new bridge as it is being built.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Template:Portal-inline
- Template:Portal-inline
- Template:Portal-inline
- Template:Portal-inline
- List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Washington (state)
- List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Template:HAER
- WSDOT:Interstate Bridge Template:Webarchive
- Interstate Bridge Replacement program: Home page of ODOT/WSDOT project to replace the Interstate Bridge