On a recent episode of The Lars Larson Show, Lars Larson welcomed back John Ley, a retired airline pilot and reporter, and candidate for the Washington House of Representatives, District 18. The discussion focused on the contentious Interstate Bridge Replacement project, a massive $7-9 billion endeavor that Ley criticizes as a significant waste of taxpayer money.
Ley highlighted the recent allocation of $1.5 billion from the Federal Bridge Investment Program, bringing total federal funding to $2.1 billion. However, he pointed out that the project still faces a significant shortfall and questioned its overall value. Ley expressed hope that a potential future Trump administration would reassess and possibly halt the project to prevent further financial waste.
Ley also drew comparisons to a bridge being built in Hood River for $520 million, which is longer and higher than the proposed Interstate 5 bridge. He emphasized that the Coast Guard’s objections to the current bridge height could further jeopardize the project, advocating for more efficient use of taxpayer funds and better solutions to address traffic congestion and commercial needs.
Transcript
Welcome back to the Lars Larson Show, it’s a pleasure to be with you and always glad to welcome back our friend John Ley aviation pilot, a retired airline pilot, I should say reporter. And you can, John can tell you where to find his stories, because they’re great candidate for the Washington House of Representatives, District 18, and of course, very knowledgeable, the most knowledgeable when it comes to the Interstate Bridge project, which is about a $7 to $9 billion boondoggle that I think most of us agree is probably never going to get built, is going to be just another gigantic waste of money without addressing that problem.
John, welcome back.
Hey, Lars, thanks for having me on, the John Ley campaign just had a blast this last weekend, giving out American flags at the Battle Ground Harvest Days parade. Great kids, wonderful family event. Just absolutely loved it.
That’s so much better than going to a Democrat event and getting a free Hamas flag or something like that. I want to talk to you about the bridge and find out about the latest on this boondoggle, where they’ve now got, what, $1.4, almost $1.5 billion from the Federal Bridge Investment program. But that’s does not still leave them at least about $5 billion short on a project that’s supposed to start construction fairly soon.
Well, my hope, my friend, is that when Donald Trump gets reelected this November, that he’s going to appoint some very common sense business people who are going to go look at all the federal money being doled out and the absolute waste on the Interstate Bridge Replacement program. And I hope they hit the stop button and say, no, we’re not going to spend another penny on this until it actually provides something of value for the people.
And that, of course, is saving them time and reducing traffic congestion. So back to your question, my friend. So far, two different federal programs have allocated $600 million and another $1.5 billion total of $2.1 billion. But none of that has been spent yet. And they are hoping to get another billion dollars from the Federal Transit Administration, bringing the total to over $2.5 billion, maybe closer to $3 billion.
But again, there’s zero value in this entire project right now. And therefore we need to put a stop on it, stop wasting the people’s money and actually provide it a project that delivers value for the people. And as you and I have talked before, the two states are building a bridge in Hood River for $520 million. If you can build a bridge for 520 million bucks, you don’t need to spend 15 times that on the Interstate 5 bridge replacement.
No. And just so I get the objection ahead of time, because somebody’s sure to call in the bridge they’re building for half a billion, how long is that bridge?
Oh, it’s longer than the Interstate 5 Bridge Replacement program. Our connection border to border is a little over 3,000ft wide. And I think in Hood River, rough wag, it’s 4,000ft wide. So it’s, much longer. And they’re actually going to build the bridge that’s taller than what the IBR is proposing, which.
the coast guard is saying
You dropped out from what you said, the bridge in Hood River will actually be a higher above the water than the one they’re proposing to build, over the Columbia on I-5.
Yes. Exactly right. And, of course, the Coast Guard is fighting this current proposal at 116ft. It’s a bridge too low. Another aspect of the waste of the taxpayers money.
No. In fact, the Coast Guard has veto power over this project. Am I overstating their authority?
Absolutely not. And again, another aspect of Trump winning the presidency is hopefully he and his administration come in and say we expect you to enforce current, very logical, sound rules that protects marine traffic on the river. And in the case of this bridge project, thank you for demanding the current 178ft or more and stick to that demand. That is very common.
We’re talking about what 62ft is, how much this bridge is short. That’s not a small amount when it comes to getting commerce under the bridge.
Exactly right. And another sad component of this bridge is the reality that the IBR team, the bridge team, is expecting to spend most likely between $100 and $200 million of the people’s money to buy off the four up river firms in what they call mitigation. And it’s using the taxpayers money to say don’t be mad here. What is it going to take by your approval on this?
You know, John, I realize that over the years we’ve been talking about this. I left one thing out of that because they want to buy off the four current companies that do business up the river and wouldn’t be able to get what they build under the, under the new bridge. But what I’ve left out is we’re assuming that there are only four companies, but if you build this bridge it forever forecloses forever.
Any company coming in and building and creating some, you know, a company to build things upriver of the bridge that don’t fit under the bridge. So you’re not just hurting the four existing companies. You’re basically saying, and there will never be a company that builds, oil derricks or oil equipment or any of the other things that would have to fit under that bridge to get to the customers.
Exactly. Right. And I mean, if you look at the history, the Kaiser Shipyards did amazing things for the American military system back in World War II, building all kind of ships and things that were valued and needed. And they are precluding that by building a bridge too low.
Well, at this point, I think the project is dead, because if the current Coast Guard is opposing it, I agree with you. I think President Trump is going to win in November. He’ll be president in January. And the Coast Guard if they continue to fight. And God bless him, we’ve asked him to come on. I understand they probably want to stay out of a political, you know, a political mess like this is.
But at this point, they haven’t changed their tune. I don’t think they’re going to. I think the project is dead, and they’ve wasted more years and more hundreds of millions of dollars on this. That’s John Ley. You can find his stories at Clark County Today. We’ll be back in a moment.
