ICYMI: Murray, Cantwell, MGP Announce Long-Sought Win for WA: I-5 Bridge Replacement Project Wins $600 Million Grant
Sen. Murray has championed the I-5 Bridge Replacement project stretching back decades; Murray funded the Mega grant program in BIL and pushed Biden admin repeatedly on importance of project — MORE HERE
ICYMI: Senator Murray Speaks on Senate Floor on $600 Million Mega Grant Award for I-5 Bridge Replacement — VIDEO HERE
***LIVESTREAM of roundtable discussion HERE***
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL of today’s event HERE***
Vancouver, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, toured the I-5 bridge and hosted a roundtable with Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, and Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) partners and stakeholders following the $600 million federal Mega grant announced last month for the bridge replacement project to discuss additional federal funding Senator Murray is working to secure for IBR from the Bridge Investment Program—a program modeled off legislation Senator Murray introduced, which Murray helped write and fund in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—as well as the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants Program, a program Murray works to fund every year.
“It’s great to be here so soon after the Mega grant announcement and to have another chance to tour the bridge and meet with folks on the ground for an update as we work to finally replace this aging piece of infrastructure. The I-5 bridge is a major thoroughfare critical for the economy of Southwest Washington and the entire country—but it’s practically an antique, it’s unsafe, and it’s a major source of congestion for commuters and commerce trying to get through,” said Senator Murray. “I’m ecstatic about the Mega grant, but I’m working hard now to make a strong case for the additional federal funding we need to finally get this project over the finish line. We need a strong award from the Bridge Investment Program I helped write in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and we also need to get Capital Investment Grants funding for the public transit components of the project to make sure the new I-5 bridge will truly be accessible for everyone—as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I will be in close touch with local leaders here on the ground as I make our case for these resources as forcefully as possible in the Other Washington.”
“Along with our regional and state partners, I am thrilled about the recent initial infusion of federal grant funding and ongoing support for the Interstate Bridge Replacement program,” said Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle. “This project will not only strengthen the national economy, our regional workforce, and enhance everyday life for our community, but also demonstrates that we can center people over politics and prioritize climate and equity in a mega project.”
“Funding from the Mega grant program is a significant milestone that continues the strong momentum to replace this critical infrastructure with a safe and modern multimodal corridor,” said Greg Johnson, IBR Program Administrator. “This grant award would not have been possible without strong bi-state collaboration and the leadership from our federal delegation to support this nationally significant effort.”
Funding for the Department of Transportation’s Mega grant program—created as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law— comes from advance appropriations provisions that Senator Murray helped write into the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as a senior appropriator, providing $5 billion over five years for the Mega program. Murray’s longtime leadership on the I-5 Bridge Replacement Project—encompassing her time as the top Democrat on the Transportation Appropriations subcommittee—includes passing into law a provision updating the Federal Transit Administration’s evaluation process for multimodal projects like the I-5 Bridge Replacement to make them more competitive for federal funding; to this day the project is relying on the authorities Murray secured for the transit components of this project.
The I-5 Bridge project received the highest amount of funding out of 11 awards nationwide. This year, the Department of Transportation sought applications for $1.8 billion in Mega program funding from Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024 advance appropriations. The Mega grant marks the second federal grant awarded to the current bridge replacement project; the first, a $1 million seismic study grant, was awarded in October 2022. The Mega grant award will fund 8-12% of the estimated $5-7.5 billion total bridge replacement project cost and the bridge replacement project remains eligible for other sources of federal funding, including the Department of Transportation’s Bridge Investment Program—a program modeled off legislation Senator Murray introduced—and the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants Program, which Senator Murray has secured increased funding for over the years.
The I-5 Bridge is a linchpin in both the regional and national economy and plays a vital role in transporting freight along the I-5 corridor. IBR reports that $132 million worth of freight crossed the I-5 Bridge daily in 2020. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, an estimated total of $97 billion in goods traveled by truck either from Washington to Oregon or California, or from Oregon or California to Washington in 2022. The route is also vital to international exporters; in 2021, nearly $2 billion worth of goods from California and $750 million worth of goods from Oregon were trucked to Canada via the I-5 corridor. According to the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council an average of 131,747 vehicles crossed the bridge each weekday in 2021, including many of the 65,000 Clark County residents who work in Oregon.
Despite the bridge’s importance, it is rated the worst truck bottleneck in Washington and Oregon and the fifth-worst on the West Coast, with seven to 10 hours of slow-moving traffic during the morning and evening commute periods. Beyond this, there are significant issues with the aging bridge—one span is more than a century old and the other is more than 65 years old. Neither span has had a seismic retrofit, which is a significant concern in a region susceptible to earthquake activity: the entire structure is at risk of collapse in the event of a major earthquake. Maintaining the existing structure is expensive—annual maintenance costs are about $1.2 million per year and larger maintenance projects needed to simply maintain the bridge are expected to cost $280 million by 2040, not including the cost of a seismic retrofit, which would be substantial. Today, these maintenance costs are split equally between the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
A timeline of Senator Murray’s longtime leadership on the I-5 Bridge replacement project over more than two decades—including many of the moments she highlighted in her floor speech—is HERE.
Recent video of Senator Murray speaking on the Senate floor about IBR and the Mega award is HERE.
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