I hope Sam reads this piece and takes it to heart.

The CRC proposals are exactly the kind of projects that should not be built. The DOTs, wasting $70 million on planning and engineering, ignored all practical approaches to solving the Columbia River crossing problems with low cost mixes of rail, transit and local access projects, while offering only two massive freeway widening proposals that include condescending nods to transit.

The CRC Task Force must soon approve one of these two alternatives or reject them both with a no-build vote.

Let’s hope that Sam, Portland’s representative on the Task Force takes the courageous position to vote “no-build” on this environmentally destructive project and recommends that the DOTs drop their freeway “solution” or relinquish responsibility to local authorities to come up with more sustainable ones.