Because of the bridge's design–lack of shoulders, lifts, and closely spaced interchanges–it is currently one of the highest crash locations in Oregon’s interstate system, and averages 7-10 hours of congestion during the morning and evening commutes. Congestion issues are further exacerbated by the bridge’s location between the Ports of Portland and Vancouver, which added over 13,500 trucks to the number of vehicles that crossed the bridge in 2019. In this congestion, trucks are joined by a high number of motor vehicles as there are limited high capacity transit options between Portland and Vancouver. The only alternative means of crossing the bridge is a small walking and biking path on either side of the bridge measuring 3.5-feet in width, which isn’t capable of safely supporting any meaningful amount of foot or bicycle traffic. The push to replace this vital piece of infrastructure has been going on for over 25 years. Hampered by the failure of efforts to update the structure in 2014 when the Washington State Legislature declined to take up the funding package, the bridge’s condition only continued to worsen. The need to do something about this vulnerable piece of infrastructure was recognized in 2019 when Governor Kate Brown of Oregon and Governor Jay Inslee of Washington agreed to create the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program (IBR). The goal in creating the IBR program is to replace the Interstate Bridge over the Columbia River with a modern, seismically-resilient multimodal structure that improves mobility for people, goods, and services. Greg Johnson explains that equity and the climate are the forefront of the IBR program considerations. Johnson is the IBR Program Administrator, having joined the project in July of 2020. For Johnson and the IBR program, the first step to building equity into the program was understanding the history of major transportation construction and development in the region. The construction of I-5 in the 1950s displaced a number of communities throughout the region, and the reverberating effects of displacing existing communities are still felt to this day. Johnson says that one of their first acts was to hire a Principal Equity Officer whose main focuses are to assure their processes are appropriate and that the program is reaching out in appropriate ways to “amplify voices that have not been a part of projects like this [and] look at outcomes.” This includes steps like reaching out to small, minority-, and women-owned businesses who have historically been excluded from similar building projects.
More than most, Johnson knows the struggle of being displaced– having been displaced from his home at four years old by a Department of Transportation project–and recalls his father’s frustration at not being treated fairly in the process. This experience informs Johnson’s approach to his work on the IBR program, driving him to always make sure people’s voices are being heard.The IBR program’s focus on equity also includes having a continued Community Advisory Group, which meets monthly to have “substantial conversations…to make
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October 2023 csengineermag.com
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