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Floor Speech
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today, thrilled to announce major progress on something that I have been working on since my earliest days here in the U.S. Senate: replacing the I-5 bridge between Vancouver, WA, and Portland, OR.
Late last week, the administration began the notification and review process for grants from the brand new Mega Grant Program we all worked together to establish in the bipartisan infrastructure law, and I was proud to help write the provisions that made sure the Mega Program was funded when we passed that law. So I am ecstatic that the I-5 Bridge Replacement Project will be receiving $600 million in Federal funding from the Mega Grant Program to move us forward on a project that is hugely important to Washington State, to the Pacific Northwest, and really the entire country.
This has been a long time coming, and I should know because I have been there for just about every step of this journey. I remember meeting with Senator Hatfield from Oregon when I was first elected to talk about the need to replace the I-5 crossing between our States-- Washington and Oregon--which was already in bad condition in the 1990s. We sat down with folks to hold one of the first of many, many, many conversations about what needed to be done and how we could make it happen.
Then, in 2003, as the top Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, I held a hearing in Vancouver to discuss why this project was so important. Back then, I was raising the alarm about predictions that peak congestion for traffic would hit 10 hours by 2020. And wouldn't you know it, today, we are dealing with 7 to 10 hours of slow-moving traffic during the morning and evening rush hours.
Ever since I held that field hearing 20 years ago, I have continued to champion this project at every possible opportunity and every juncture over the years--from securing tens of millions of dollars in Federal funding for the early stages of this project back when it was known as the Columbia River Crossing to sitting down with stakeholders and community leaders dozens of times and holding countless conversations on the thorny issues of moving ahead with a massive project like this, to passing a new provision into law to ease the FTA's evaluation process for multimodal projects and make the I-5 Bridge Replacement Project more competitive for Federal funding, and of course pressing hard to keep this dream alive when previous efforts fell apart. It has not been easy.
As anyone who has been involved in this process over the years knows, there have been no shortage of challenges and setbacks. And, make no mistake, we still have a lot more work to do to see this project through, but failing to replace the I-5 bridge has never been an option to me because I know how important this is to Southwest Washington and, really, to the entire region.
Let me just spell out the stakes for everyone here because too often we take our infrastructure for granted and ignore it until it completely fails. In just about every conversation I have had about the I-5 replacement project over the years, I have been clear we cannot afford to forget about this because, if we keep kicking the can down the road, one of these days, that entire bridge will collapse.
I am not about to sit back and let that happen. We are talking about infrastructure that dates back to World War I. We have over 130,000 cars a weekday and nearly $100 billion of goods a year driving bumper to bumper across an antique that is at serious risk of collapse in the event of an earthquake, which is not exactly unheard of in our region. That is a recipe for disaster. It is frightening for everyone who has to drive across that bridge every day, and it is a huge economic liability for the businesses and communities who rely on the goods that are trucked over it.
And beyond the risk of collapse in the future, there are losses caused by traffic we are seeing today, which is hampering billions of dollars in trade and commerce and stealing one of people's most precious and irreplaceable resources: their time. It is wasting hours of their lives every day, making them late for work, making them get home late, and keeping them away from their family and friends and loved ones.
Replacing this bridge that is overcrowded, over 100 years old, and underprepared for an earthquake should be a no-brainer, especially since this project also includes vital transit and roadway improvements like extending the light rail from Portland, OR, to Vancouver, WA, and making the crossing safer and more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians.
As everyone who has been involved in this discussion knows, Mega funding is critical to building out those key components of the project. This is a great and important reminder for all of my colleagues. Good things happen when we all roll up our sleeves and work together to make good bipartisan legislation a reality.
So a special thank-you especially to the 10 bipartisan Senators whose resolve and determination to work together and hammer out the details of the legislation made the bipartisan infrastructure law a reality.
Now, the importance and urgency of this project should be obvious. Unfortunately, as someone who has had to make this argument over and over again, I can tell you it has not always been the case. Much like the citizens on the I-5, this bridge replacement project has been stuck in gridlock way too long. I have been pushing hard for years to keep this moving forward, and with this announcement, we are now making big progress.
So I really was delighted to announce this major progress toward securing funding which I have worked on for so long, along with my amazing partners like Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, State Senator Annette Cleveland, Secretary Roger Millar at the Washington State Department of Transportation, Greg Johnson and his incredible staff, all of our Southwest Washington labor allies, and so many others who joined me in this effort over so many years. This Mega grant will be an important mile marker and a sign that we are finally picking up speed.
Now, I am determined to secure the additional Federal funding we will need to get this done, but this announcement is bringing a goal we have been working on together for decades--replacing the I-5 crossing-- closer into view, and that is a big deal. I am as ready as I have ever been to keep moving forward and finish the job.
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