Month: July 2022
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The Week Observed, July 29, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Fix it Last. The Oregon Department of Transportation claims that it has a “Fix-it” first policy–prioritizing spending funds to preserve existing roads and bridges. But their actual budget priorities make it clear that they routinely short change maintenance and repair in favor of costly and ineffective road expansion projects. …
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ODOT’s “Fix-it first” fraud
ODOT claims that its policy is “fix-it first” maintaining the highway system. But it is spending vastly less on maintenance and restoration than is needed to keep roads and bridges from deteriorating It blames the Legislature for not prioritizing repair over new construction But it chooses to advance policies that prioritize spending money on new…
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Failing to Learn from Failed CRC
Metro Council voted on July 14th to wave on the proposed “Interstate Bridge Replacement” project which is really a bloated, 5 mile long, 12-lane wide freeway that will cost $5 billion and likely much more. It’s a scene-for-scene remake of the disaster that was the failed Columbia River Crossing a decade ago. Metro’s then-President David…
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A bridge too low . . . again
Ignoring the Coast Guard dooms the I-5 Bridge Project to yet another failure The Oregon and Washington DOTs have again designed a I-5 bridge that’s too low for navigation In their rush to recycle the failed plans for the Columbia River Crossing, the two state transportation departments have failed to address Coast Guard navigation concerns…
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Oregon and Washington DOTs plan too low a bridge–again.
The Coast Guard has told Oregon and Washington that a new I-5 bridge must have a 178-foot vertical clearance for river navigation–vastly higher than the 116-foot clearance the state’s have proposed A fixed span with that clearance would be prohibitively expensive and would have to be huge–nearly 2 miles long, and would have steep grades. …