Bridge Plan Rejected in Favor of Cheaper Alternatives

The $3.6 billion bridge plan has been replaced with three other options, mainly because the ambitious design could have been too difficult and risky to build.

"[A] panel of national and international bridge experts called on the governors of Oregon and Washington to scrap that design, saying technical and engineering complexities could doom the largest transportation project in the region's history.

'Discontinue any further design or planning work on the open-web girder bridge,' the CRC's 16-member Bridge Expert Review Panel said in its 150-page report.

After hearing repeated concerns about risks, engineering complexities, aesthetics and costs, the Oregon and Washington departments of transportation convened the panel to evaluate the bridge design last summer."