In a recent appearance on the Lars Larson Show, John Ley, a retired airline pilot and advocate for transportation reform, expressed concerns over the escalating costs of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project. Highlighting the potential $9.40 daily tolls, Ley warned that local families could face a $2,350 annual toll bill, pulling over $168 million from the regional economy every year. Even more alarming, Ley revealed that the bridge design has yet to receive critical Coast Guard approval due to clearance issues, raising further doubts about the project’s viability. He also criticized the light rail portion of the project, calling it the most expensive per mile worldwide. Ley’s message was clear: families will pay more, get less, and be stuck in longer commutes, all for a project riddled with financial mismanagement and lack of transparency.
Transcript
Lars Larson
I’ve been pursuing for a long time, but John Ley has been doing a lot longer. Tracking the progress, or lack thereof, in what’s known now as the Interstate Bridge Replacement. It was the Columbia River Crossing. The first one died after wasting $200 million. I think this one is going to die as well. But now they’ve got a new element in it.
Hey, how would you like to pay tolls that will toll up more than nine bucks at the maximum per day per worker to do a round trip on that Interstate Bridge Replacement, and you get to start paying for the bridge before it’s even finished. Now, if I’ve said anything wrong there, John will be happy to correct me.
John is a retired airline pilot, reporter, candidate for Washington House of Reps, District 18, Position 2, and of course, an advocate for transit and transportation, but a critic of the IBR. John, welcome back.
John Ley
Hey, Lars, you were absolutely on fire yesterday. Thanks so much. You know, and you nailed it yesterday when you did the math. Nine bucks and $0.40 per day and roundtrip tolls equaled $2,350 bucks per year out of local families’ budgets. That’s an outrageously regressive tax harming low and middle-income families who have to cross the Columbia River for work.
But last night I ran some more. Go ahead.
Lars Larson
No, I want you to tell me more numbers. Because people should know the numbers tell the tale. The reason the required Coast Guard approval has not come, and you and I don’t believe it’s going to come, is that the bridge has been designed 60 ft too short to clear the river traffic. And the Coast Guard’s approval is required. And so far has not been given.
And I don’t think it’s going to be given. And you and I have talked about it. But the other part of numbers is all these bridge toll numbers to pay for this thing, because neither Oregon nor Washington or the federal government has the cash to get it done. Do they?
John Ley
Now they don’t. And the numbers that I ran show the interstate bridge currently has about 140,000 daily vehicle trips. That’s 70,000 people going two trips per day. So 70,000 workers have to pay $2,400 per year in tolls. That’s going to take $168 million a year out of the Portland metro economy. What an unbelievable buzzkill. And of course, you add that up over ten years of construction.
By the time the bridge opens in 2035, the IBR would have taken over $1.6 billion out of people’s pockets. That’s an absolute outrage.
Lars Larson
It is. And John, I even wanted to throw this in because for the average worker, if they say, well, that’s a cost of going to work, do I get to charge that, you know, or take it off my taxes as an expense, unless you’re running your own business, you don’t get to deduct that. So that’s just $2,400 or so post-tax dollars that have to come out of your family’s budget, about $200 bucks a month or so.
You know, with nothing coming back for it, except you get to drive on a road and a bridge that you’ve already paid for.
John Ley
Exactly right. And what do they get? Sadly, they get the shaft because the project is already telling people morning commute times from Salmon Creek in North Vancouver are going to double by 2045. It takes about 29 minutes today. It’s going to be 60 minutes or more by 2045. So you’re going to pay all this money, and you’re going to spend more time stuck in your car, instead of at work or at home with your family.
What an absolute outrage and a waste of the people’s money.
Lars Larson
And by the way, it’s worth mentioning John’s the one who came up with the number that the light rail portion of this bridge, which could be disposed of tomorrow, as far as I’m concerned, makes it the single most expensive light rail project on planet Earth. At just over a hair over $1 billion a mile to build light rail.
And when you hear that number and you say, that can’t be right, John, am I wrong that it’s 1.9 billion for about two miles or a little less than two miles or 1.9 miles and $2 billion, right?
John Ley
You’re exactly right, buddy. And adding outrage to that, TriMet is demanding that the program buy 19 brand new light rail cars. So that’s ten light rail cars per mile for a 1.9-mile light rail extension. That in itself is ridiculous. And then what they’re telling us is that they want to charge triple the cost for each of those light rail vehicles.
And the program doesn’t even bat an eye. They think that’s just okay.
Lars Larson
And by the way, John.
John Ley
Outrageous boondoggle.
Lars Larson
John, am I right to suspect that what they’re what TriMet is trying to do because they’re telling Vancouver you’ve got to buy these triple-priced cars, that what TriMet is doing is transferring some of its costs by saying, you know, these are really $5 million cars or $3 million cars, but we’re going to sell them at triple price to Vancouver so we can suck some more money out of Southwest Washington to satisfy TriMet’s budget, which is upside down all the time because they’ve had falling ridership for the better part of 20 years.
John Ley
Exactly right. And in fact, TriMet recently passed a budget of $1.8 billion, but they only need about $850 million to operate it. Well, if you’re going bankrupt, if you’re losing money every single year, why on earth would you spend $1 billion more than it takes to operate your system? One more part of the entire fallacy of TriMet. And this whole thing is designed to try and keep them alive a little bit longer with more government subsidies.
It’s outrageous.
Lars Larson
It is. And John, I just don’t know when are we going to get a vote on this? I mean, not a government agency vote, but an actual vote of the public. Because if I recall correctly, the last time Southwest Washington got to vote on light rail, they said no. And the last time Oregonians were allowed to vote on light rail, they said no.
And right now, TriMet is in the middle of building a line. The line that goes from Tigard to, where is it? Down to Bridgeport. And that line is going to cost about $3 billion at the same time as a line of similar length, using high-speed busses, so-called to go 19 miles an hour, is the same distance traveled with people on it, and it costs about 5% as much as the $3 billion light rail line.
But it moves people the same distance in the city in a similar way. Why don’t they just go with buses?
John Ley
Well, and that’s absolute common sense. Busses are flexible. They don’t get stuck on a rail when it’s freezing and there’s snow, as we see every winter. TriMet has to shut down when it’s too cold and there’s snow on the ground. Or every summer when it’s too hot, they have to shut down because the electricity added to the heat of the outside temperature causes them problems.
Lars Larson
Unbelievable. That is John Ley, retired airline pilot, reporter, and candidate for Washington House of Reps, District 18, position 2. John, thanks very much.
