The CRC is not dead, and will never die

This article is from WILLAMETTE WEEK
We’ve seen this one before: State officials declare the Columbia River Crossing project dead, then find a way to keep it alive. Gov. John Kitzhaber labeled the CRC a goner after the Legislature in February refused to go along with an Oregon-only plan to build the $2.8 billion Interstate Bridge and light-rail project. But lawyers for the feds and the state recently told a federal judge they still hope the project can get funded. They made that surprising claim in a federal lawsuit brought by the Coalition for a Livable Future, a Portland advocacy group seeking to block the CRC on environmental grounds. If the project truly were dead, the coalition’s lawsuit would be moot. But on March 18, project lawyers sought and received a stay that keeps the CRC alive for another year. Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Thompson says ODOT will not seek CRC funding. Critics are skeptical. “I’m very concerned,” says Mara Gross, the coalition’s executive director. “The governor indicated this project was shutting down, but what’s happening in the litigation tells a different story.”