May 12, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The draft Environmental Impact Statement issued this month for the Columbia River Crossing project is raising the hackles of people on both sides of the mighty river. The project, estimated to cost upwards of $4 billion, would enhance or replace the aging I-5 bridge and its approaches in Vancouver, Wash., and Portland, Ore. Or maybe not.

Reporter Jeffrey Mize of The Columbian newspaper, which serves the Vancouver area, wrote a lively article last week that lays out the controversies surrounding the project, which has been in the works for the past 12 years. As the article points out, no one denies there is congestion in the corridor that needs to be relieved. But as Mize points out, few people agree on...Read More

May 5, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I’m a guy who loves cars and driving -- always have been. By the time I was learning to talk I could point out a 1947 Ford coupe, because that’s what my dad drove. A few years later, my cousin and I would sit in the front yard and scrunch up our faces to mimic the front-end styling of the cars that drove past us. I could go on, but you really don’t want that, believe me.

Just like everyone else, I’ve been wincing lately every time I gas up my car. Twelve gallons equals nearly 50 bucks. Ouch! But also just like most people, I haven’t changed my driving habits much yet. I’m not riding my bike to the store or walking to my friends’ houses. I can’t: I live ou...Read More

April 28, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The national slowdown in construction is beginning to reach areas of the Pacific Northwest.

The 2008 year-to-date total for publicly reported non-residential construction contracts awards in the region fell back in April, dropping to 7 percent behind the record-setting pace set last year. According to the Contract Awards Summary, to be published in the May 5 edition of Pacific Builder & Engineer, awards slowed in every state except Alaska compared to the previous month, with Idaho taking the biggest hit. Figures for the individual Northwest states are as follows:

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April 19, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

While we struggle to reduce congestion and create safer conditions on highways, efforts also are under way to find a more effective vehicle than the gas tax to pay for highway maintenance and construction. Once a viable source of highway funds, the gas tax has faltered in recent years due to a combination of rising fuel economy in our vehicles, flagging resolve in our political leaders and inflation.

Now, after a one-year pilot conducted in the Portland area with more than 280 volunteers, the Oregon Department of Transportation may have hit on a solution to this problem, and again technology is involved.

ODOT reports that a mileage fee could feasibly replace the gas tax a...Read More

April 14, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The debate about how to manage our overcrowded highway system continues. Speaking to a group of transportation and industry officials in Portland on Friday at a luncheon put on by the Oregon Environmental Council, Gov. Ted Kulongoski pledged to enact green transportation legislation.

The governor called the state’s current transportation infrastructure “woefully inadequate” and said he will propose the largest and greenest plan of his tenure next year. He called for people to drive less, to use cleaner fuels and for better technology devoted to alternative transportation, like electric cars.

Kulongoski said systemwide changes are needed in Oregon, but on...Read More