Rep. Ley: I-5 Bridge Budget Is Out of Control

0:00This story was written by Carlene Johnson with the Center Square Washington, a lawmaker from Vancouver, Washington, who sits on the Buy State legislative committee for the Interstate Bridge replacement project is calling for a reset of design and construction plans. We found out in late March with Governor Ferguson in a press conference, the cost of the I-5 Interstate Bridge is going to be on the order of $13 billion to $15 billion said representative John Lee, Republican of Vancouver, in an interview Tuesday with the Center Square. The IBR is a Buy State project to replace the aging Interstate 5 Bridge over the Columbia River between Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. As Lee noted in a September 6th opinion piece in Clark County today, it was September 2020 that the Washington State Department of Transportation signed a $44 million contract with WSK Global on the IBR. When the Federal Department of Transportation issued a record of decision on July 1, the IBR had spent $321.7 million to achieve that milestone. The ROD came roughly two and one-half years later than originally promised with a seven-fold increase in cost.

1:02The lucrative contract appears to have been amended at least seven times, wrote Lee in his op-ed. After Ferguson acknowledged the exploding cost for the project, Lee said planners said it would be built in phases. The IBR team came out and said, well, there's not enough money to build all of this, so we are going to break it into phases. And phase one they are proposing would be between a $5.5 and a $7.5 billion project. The problem is the IBR team, their engineers and financial people, are saying we are still short by $2.2 billion, Lee said. The Vancouver Lawmaker likened the ballooning project to Boston's Big Dig or California High Speed Rail debacle. It is a case study in consultants getting rich, said Lee. You promised you could do this for $44 million, you signed on the dotted line. It's now being delayed and we reward them with seven times the amount of money they said they would do it. That's ridiculous in and of itself. Lee told the center square. He was referring to what program administrators now say costs will be. Adding that administrators are also guaranteed they will make a very good return. Lee is not the only lawmaker on the by-state committee voicing displeasure about the delays and skyrocketing cost estimates.

2:07I want to date and I want to report, or I would say your group is not doing its work, said Oregon State Representative Tweetran, Democrat of Northeast Portland during a December 15th 2025 meeting when project staffers failed to deliver new cost estimates and timelines. Oregon Journalism Project revealed weeks later that IBR staffers had new cost estimates as of August 2025, but did not produce them. Frankly, it is shocking to realize that they lied on the record, not only to me, but to the committee and by extension the public at large, Trans-old OJP. In addition to a new bridge, the project includes stretching a max light rail line to Vancouver and rebuilding several on and off-rints, extending five miles along interstate five. Lee is pressing fellow members of the by-state committee to reassess the entire project. You would not start building a house if you didn't have enough money set aside to build the whole thing. And in this case, you're looking at about 35% shorter the money to build just phase one. It's just ridiculous. He noted that some of the federal funding for the project could be in jeopardy if they don't scale things way back and prove to the Trump administration that extending rail across the bridge is necessary.

3:14Lee is not convinced they need rail across the bridge. The center square reached out to the IBR program for comment on these criticisms, but did not receive a response before publication. The next by-state meeting of IBR lawmakers will be held Thursday, September 17th, from 1 to 3 pm and broadcast on TVW. This report was first published by the center square Washington.