The Joint Committee on Transportation is holding a public hearing on the -2 amendment to HB 2098 THIS THURSDAY - April 27 - from 5-8 PM. This bill will fund Oregon’s share of this project, which benefits our entire state’s economy, not just Portland.
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Washington has committed $1 billion. Now it’s Oregon’s turn to step up and put forward our $1 billion share to leverage once-in-a-generation federal money. The funding proposal creates no new taxes or revenue but instead uses the state’s existing bonding capacity. Â
Progressive activists want to hijack this bill to advance their extreme agenda. That means a bridge that doesn’t meet our economy’s needs and increases traffic congestion. Their proposal would give special treatment to union-backed contractors who bankroll progressive politicians at the expense of small and minority-owned contractors.
As Vice-Chair of the Transportation Committee, I urge you to lend your voice: the safety of our transportation system and the health of our economy is not for sale!
Here are some potential talking points
to make during your testimony:
- The Legislature must act now to maximize our chance at federal dollars. Otherwise, Oregon taxpayers will get stuck with an extraordinary cost that we cannot afford.
- Transportation policy should be bipartisan. Efforts to politicize the bridge for ideological goals will unnecessarily divide Oregonians. We need a right-sized bridge with enough space to meet today’s traffic needs and for the next 100 years.
- The bridge represents a major transportation corridor for the regional economy. Recent analysis by the I-5 Bridge Replacement Project team shows that about 10% of the daily traffic over this bridge is freight, or about 13,500 trucks daily. The daily value of this freight is over $70M and expectations are that this will double by 2040. The congestion that is created in the corridor between the Rose Quarter and I-5 Bridge increases the cost of goods, creates unpredictability, and increases the emissions of both cars and trucks.
- It’s a massive source of congestion. The American Transportation Research Council lists the nation’s 100 top bottlenecks annually, and the I-5 Bridge is listed as #31, only slightly behind the Rose Quarter bottleneck listed at #28.
- The current bridge is old and unsafe. It is over 100 years old and the pylons do not extend into the river bedrock. It has no extra space for emergency vehicles or room to pull off in the case of a wreck.
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SUBMIT WRITTEN TESTIMONY
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1415
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-389, Salem, OR 97301
Email: Rep.ShellyBoshartDavis@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/boshartdavis
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