Once Abandoned, Now Accelerated: Columbia River Crossing Replacement Building Momentum

"Federal highway officials on Tuesday endorsed an accelerated timeline proposed by Oregon and Washington transportation officials that sets the two states on a fast track toward construction on a new Interstate Bridge by 2025," reports Andrew Theen.

The federal government has a say in the matter, because if the two states had a deadline for delivering progress or they had to pay back $140 million in planning costs for the bridge, also known as the Columbia River Crossing, or CRC.

"While seeking a decade delay, the states simultaneously suggested a series of aggressive milestones, including reinitiating an environmental review of a proposed project in spring 2020 and starting construction in the summer of 2025," according to Theen.

Under the deal with the feds, the states must now have shown significant progress—buying right of way—by 2024. The two states have been picking up the pace toward reconciliation of the project, as detailed most recently by Planetizen in August 2019. Planetizen also picked up news of the project after its demise in 2014.