Lack of funds kills Oregon’s Columbia River Crossing project

Oregon's Columbia River Crossing project will shut down completely by May 31, 2014, after the Oregon Legislature adjourned without reinstating construction funds for the CRC I-5 Bridge Replacement project March 7, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).

“As identified in Gov. Kitzhaber’s January 27, 2014, letter to legislative leadership, the project will begin the process of orderly archival and closeout,” ODOT Director Matthew Garrett. “We have the fiduciary responsibility to close out the project in a systematic, retrievable manner in order to adequately preserve a decade of research, environmental reviews, community involvement and detailed engineering work for potential future use. We will archive work products according to Oregon record retention requirements.”

ODOT, Washington State Department of Transportation and TriMet will begin demobilizing agency staff and will issue stop work orders on consultant contracts on or before March 15, 2014, including instructions to record the current status of the work product and contract amendments to archive work products and conduct contract closeout. Additionally, the intergovernmental agreements with agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Multnomah County Drainage District will close out with formal stop work orders.