Camas metropolis officers stay unified of their opposition to gentle rail on the deliberate Interstate 5 substitute bridge.
The Camas Metropolis Council on Feb. 3 voted unanimously in favor of a decision opposing the extension of TriMet’s gentle rail trains from North Portland throughout a brand new I-5 Bridge into downtown Vancouver.
The choice got here lower than two hours after leaders of the Interstate Bridge Substitute Program advised Camas officers that eliminating gentle rail at this stage would significantly delay the challenge’s timeline and anticipated 2035 opening — and even jeopardize the entire challenge.
“If we say, ‘No, we’re going to wipe away light rail,’ after we moved the program forward on the basis of this locally preferred alternative, all of that work would have to be redone,” Greg Johnson, head of the bridge challenge, advised Camas metropolis councilors throughout a Feb. 3 workshop. “This took 2, 2½ years to get to this. I’m not saying it would take another 2½ years, but it would take significant time to get to another … locally preferred alternative that didn’t include light rail.”
The I-5 substitute bridge is slated to incorporate C-Tran specific service, buses working within the shoulder lanes throughout peak commuting hours, in addition to gentle rail.
The bridge substitute is anticipated to price about $6 billion. The challenge has $2.1 billion in devoted federal mega-grant funding that’s tied to the inclusion of multimodal types of transit, together with gentle rail, Johnson mentioned. He advised Camas officers final week that tweaking the domestically most well-liked bridge-replacement plan authorized in 2022 by stakeholders on each side of the river would solely escalate building prices.
“Every day we miss here … adds up to $1 million in escalation and inflation costs,” Johnson mentioned. “Time is not our friend on a project like this. These delays cause us to take dollars that could be spent on improvements and put them toward inflation and escalation.”
Survey reveals assist
Bridge challenge leaders additionally famous that residents in Washington and Oregon have proven assist for including gentle rail to the substitute bridge.
“We did a statistically accurate poll that was specific to transit and there was support on both sides of the river for light rail,” Frank Inexperienced, an assistant program administrator for the bridge challenge, advised Camas officers final week. “There was strong support among residents in the entire region and solid, majority support throughout Clark County for the inclusion of light rail on the replacement bridge.”
Inexperienced mentioned a 2022 survey of residents in Southwest Washington and the Portland metro space confirmed 79 % “strongly or somewhat” supported gentle rail on a future bridge. That assist was strongest amongst Portland respondents, with 90 % in favor of the sunshine rail extension, but additionally captured the vast majority of respondents from the Washington facet of the Columbia River, the place gentle rail had 69 % assist within the metropolis of Vancouver and 61 % in Clark County.
In line with Inexperienced, the survey additionally confirmed the sunshine rail extension over the longer term bridge had 57 % assist amongst residents in Clark County, even excluding Vancouver residents’ responses.
Camas nonetheless says ‘no’
Camas Metropolis Council members got here out in opposition to gentle rail in January, after listening to new estimates that it’ll price $2 billion to increase TriMet’s gentle rail line into downtown Vancouver and round $20 million a yr to function and keep.
Camas Councilman Tim Hein, who represents Camas on the board of administrators for C-Tran, Clark County’s public transit company, rallied different Camas Metropolis Council members in January when he known as for the town to cross a press release formally opposing the inclusion of sunshine rail on the brand new bridge.
“I don’t think there’s any concern with having a new bridge,” Hein mentioned in the course of the council’s Feb. 3 workshop. “The question is a bridge with light rail at a cost of $2 billion and significant (operations and maintenance) costs, which we are indirectly supporting … with limited benefit.”
Though leaders of different small cities in Clark County who serve on C-Tran’s board even have raised considerations about gentle rail’s price, they mentioned they don’t wish to threat your entire challenge.
“We know we cannot accommodate future traffic modes in this corridor with just freeway (lanes),” Johnson mentioned. “The funding that came from each state — their expectation is that there will be light rail.”
Johnson tried to guarantee Camas officers final week that the inclusion of sunshine rail on the longer term bridge was not taken flippantly by anybody concerned in planning the substitute bridge.
“This was a very thoroughly discussed issue amongst partners. … We had a bistate legislative committee who nodded their heads to that locally preferred alternative,” Johnson mentioned. “This is not just a fever dream (concocted) in a smoke-filled back room.”
In the long run, nonetheless, his presentation did little to sway Camas officers’ anti-light rail opinions. The council voted unanimously to approve the anti-light rail decision championed by Hein, formally stating that the addition of sunshine rail on the substitute I-5 Bridge could be “too burdensome” to the town of Camas and its residents, would offer “little to no benefit” to Camas and shouldn’t be included on a brand new bridge.