Ones that socialize with the Democrat, and former United States Cabinet Secretary need to reassess
their own credibility .
Nothing to see here, move on..

I despised this project from the start. Now we can add bad kharma to my reasons to hate this thing.

"Kitzhaber has made McCaig, 58, his top adviser on the CRC, a position in which she has waged a years-long political battle to make sure 2013 is the project’s year.

But she is not a state employee. McCaig’s paycheck is signed by the CRC’s biggest contractor, David Evans and Associates, which profits by the project going forward. To date, McCaig has been paid $417,000.

Government ethics experts from across the country interviewed by WW say Kitzhaber’s use of McCaig appears to be a conflict of interest and demonstrates a lack of transparency."

APPEARS to be a conflict of interest?

How is this not criminal behavior as some sort of fraud on the taxpayer?

God, that welcome home group is really a screwed up bunch. This is the best and brightest bought off.

Pedophile returns home like victorious warrior. That is so sick on so many levels. Rabbi Manny Rose is off my Xmas list.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/02/columbia_river_crossing_could.html

This is a good read, only excerpts below:

Told of the estimate Tuesday evening, however, company representatives reacted in disbelief, saying the range, and other figures in the application, were too low.
"All their figures look very low to me," said Jason Pond, chief executive officer of Greenberry Industrial, who wants a lift span to be added to the new bridge. "They're trying to look at it in a way that's most beneficial to the CRC, not to us."

The final mitigation price tag, adding to public money budgeted for the $3.4 billion project, will represent a cost missed by CRC officials when they somehow overlooked the three companies. The oversight led to an 11th-hour decision to raise the proposed bridge's vertical clearance from 95 feet to 116 feet, affecting fewer vessels.

All the indicators say NO to this. Can you believe a cost missed by the CRC officials that somehow overlooked the three companies?

All this appears to be is a cash cow for some. We will be tolled forever everywhere and at what price?

No money left to clean up at Hanford.
These people pushing this don't care.
Where are our legislators, where are you other than in a contained corral of lock step go alongs?

I doubt even John Grisham could write an ending where a disgraced, pedophile ex-governor in exile could get the U.S. Coast Guard to sign off on a damn bridge dam blocking shipping and commerce on the Columbia River.

Oh wait... let me think... didn't the Coast Guard used to report to the Secretary of Transportation?

Well, MAYBE Grisham could find some e mails... oh wait. The current bureaucrats all use fake e mail accounts, don't they? I wonder what screen name Goldschmidt uses now?

This afternoon I was channeling Irwin Allen. It's five years in the future. The owners of businesses that rely on the river to survive and are now facing bankruptcy, suddenly snap, put together a flotilla and ram the new bridge with vessels that will not fit under it, causing a light rail car and a bevy of bicyclists to tumble into the river. Portland police would respond and the owners/pilots of the unfortunate vessels are all be killed in self defense. But hey, think of all the jobs that would be created fixing the bridge, conducting funerals, litigating and building another bunch of light rail cars. There might even be a made for TV movie in it if the mayor or a major developer were trapped on the span. The whole bridge might have to be reconstructed! More planning dollars in the mix! Maybe this time it would have to be a multi-modal floating bridge, a covered bridge, a trans-dimensional bridge! 'Couverites will simply ignore it all and refuse to help with the cleanup; they never wanted the demmed thing anyway. Far more complex than a towering inferno or a bunch of deadly bees.

Figures too low? One of those too-low figures is the height of the bridge.

You don't have to connect the dots on this one. You have to shield your eyes from the blinding flashing warning lights.

I think there's 3 groups here. The "We don't need a new bridge" coalition. The "We need one and this is going to be it" coalition. And finally, there's the radio ad by the "Let's Build a Better Bridge Coalition." Presumably people who are using it to garner attention and praise from as many people as possible by straddling both the "for" and "against" camps. Sorry, but if a person could straddle that wide, we could have them just lift cars across the river.

Anyone else ready to start again on a new design masterminded by Jefferson Smith? I know! Instead of lights on the bridge, we could have fire dancers!

I'll repeat my earlier joke:

I don't get why Jefferson Smith is against the CRC. This could give him an exciting new challenge. Instead of just trying to outrun emergency vehicles or driving 90 mph someplace, he can get into running tolls.

McCaig and Walsh had much to do with today's TriMet insanity.

http://portlandafoot.org/w/Tom_Walsh

Walsh's letter to Roberts
"Loren has become an anchor," Walsh wrote May 16 in a four-page letter to Bob Stacey, then an aide to Roberts. "TriMet either needs a new board president or a new general manager. ... I will respect either decision the governor makes."

According to Wyss, Walsh was at the time dating his future wife Patricia McCaig, a top advisor to Roberts.

This was a whole bunch of nothing. I would love to see actual wrongdoing brought to light. It would have been awesome to discuss how this fits in with west Hayden island.

I thought most of this was personal stuff. Typical Wweak not to talk about the actual issues! WTF?

Hbggz:It would have been awesome to discuss how this fits in with west Hayden island.
I would like to hear more about this.

I'll channel reality:

1) Hanford's toxic cleanup will need a barge with an enclosed capsule to contain the several radiated tanks. Height will exceed the bridge height of 116ft. Screwed

2) Locks at McNary Dam need refurbishing. All river traffic is blocked. Corp of Engineering need to barge gate locks exceeding 116 ft. Screwed

3) All industrial zoned land upriver from bridge on both Oregon and Washington side loses over 2/3rds of it property value and over 8000 potential jobs lost forever. Screwed.

4) Bonneville Dam's #2 turbine fails. Shipping of replacement past bridge not feasible.

5) Tri-City, Boardman and Hermiston Ports fail to attract industry due to bridge heights impeding potential industries. Lost jobs and taxes.

All of these true scenarios created by lightrail that causes the bridge to be at a lower level. Lightrail should be on its own independent bridge with peds/bikes and a lift to allow for the necessary height that the Coast Guard should enforce.

Lee,
If they MUST have light rail/peds/bikes a separate bridge and the lift you suggested would be the only way to go.
Again, can we really afford it and I think the answer at this time is NO!
Your reality examples are certainly valid and actually quite frightening if the this boondoggle prevails.
We cannot afford this in so many ways, the money we do not have and future implications of loss.
Are there no adults in charge of decision making?
The people who have to pay for this know better.

Does anyone know the name of the town where Goldschmidt lives in France?

I understand it's in the south - but why the hell does no one know where it actually is??

If Portland could get away with it it would shut down all transit and travel from Tijuana to British Columbia.

Geez, I wish I could move out of Oregon altogether. Oregon's governance is devolving into a Soviet style planning regiment. For example, Kitzhaber and a bunch of hand selected bureaucrats decide how many college degrees and associate degrees of this type or another should be produced. Somehow these planning folks think the magic number is 40% and 40%. This is very much like the Orwellian days when the Soviet planners decided how many coats, widgets of one sort or another to produce; only to end up short or well in excess of what individuals acting freely would determine as the economically efficient level of widgets.
All the kudos Kitzhaber is getting currently are for untested perceived successes still residing only on paper plans, and currently a wash of federal specious money transfers to the state government is hiding the true ineptness of Oregon's various governmental bodies.

The talk on here used to be get out of Portland,
get out of the Metro area, now is it get out of the state? Where to?

Clinamen, by stating that a lightrail bridge should be independent of the I-5 crossing, I'm not advocating for lightrail to Vancouver. Like always, I support a public vote of all those locally paying for it. If it succeeds on it's own merits, then majority rules.

I personally believe that express bus/HOV lanes would be better and much cheaper, and maybe in some far distance future lightrail might pass. But all the JPACT and other entities saw the CRC crossing as more a chance to get lightrail to Vancouver, and they had little interest in making a new bridge capacity larger, better, and earthquake proof while not having to have bridge lifts with adequate height. I know a few people at David Evans, and over a few beers they acknowledge the hidden agendas and where they come from. It's incestious.

Lee,
I didn't think you were advocating for light rail to Vancouver either, certainly not at this time or this process. I agree with the express buses.
Is there any hope that this can be stopped?
This drive of light rail at any and all costs on the Milwaukie side, it doesn't seem possible to do a repeat of attempting all the finances going to Vancouver. As I recall, money was taken by Adams from the URA at South Waterfront and from the Sellwood Bridge fund and who knows how they managed to even get money for the Milwaukie light rail. Maybe Washington State will not contribute. I just see this and along with our water situation, increased rates and changes of the system, the debt as a huge burden for our community.

One thing I find troubling in all the renderings of what the CRC will look like; the lack of placement for the toll plazas. The renderings thus far give an illusion of an open freeway whisking cars and freight down I-5.

The toll plazas will probably be the next boondoogle. Where to place them and the effect on the traffic grid will have some how been overlooked. And the solution will not be pretty.

A rail-only bridge (or rail and bike/peds, like the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Brücke across the Rhine in Cologne, makes the most sense. The current rail bridge is antiquated and small, with its swing span, and misaligned with respect to the other river navigation obstacles in the area. If long-distance passenger rail is to have any future in the region, this bridge -- unlike the current Interstate 5 bridges, which serve the purposes of car and truck transport adequately -- must be replaced. A $4 billion project? Not hardly.

"A $4 billion project? Not hardly."

Hence the problem. There are a host of smaller, cheaper, smarter, and less risky approaches to the variety of vague concerns about bridge traffic (leaving aside that none of the so-called problems hold up under critical scrutiny or will be addressed by the mega boondoggle on offer).

But pursuing them requires thinking about actual problems and solutions, instead of empire building. Remember, just as with "high speed rail" and other expensive boondoggles, the exorbitant cost is a feature, not a bug. Spending a ton of money to move the bottleneck south a bit is the gift that keeps on giving for The Machine, because with these projects failure is its own reward, the guarantee of promotions and good consulting jobs for the fixers for years to come.

Looks like being a pedophile rapist is no imPEDiment to the inner circle jerks...

teresa:The toll plazas will probably be the next boondoogle. Where to place them and the effect on the traffic grid will have some how been overlooked. And the solution will not be pretty.

I am afraid you are right.
A nightmare coming if this isn't stopped.
The enormous bill to pay on this boondoggle will be paid for by you and me and how many generations. I don't believe the tolls will be $1. either, these people are going over the top for something we cannot afford, we may end up paying $5. for tolls.

It would be poetic justice if Washington State simply said, "We've never signed on for light rail and Vancouver, et. al. oppose it. So we'll pony up for the project only if you remove light rail from the mix and reconfigure the height of the bridge because our State stands to lose revenue if it can't easily move freight on the river as well."