Interstate 5 Bridge toll plan called faultySubscriber Exclusive

Critics told Oregon and Washington transportation commissioners Friday morning that imposing tolls only on the current and replacement Interstate 5 bridges would simply divert traffic to the I-205 Bridge. “You will have spent $15 billion chiefly widening the freeway and rebuilding seven interchanges to carry fewer vehicles,” Portland economist Joe Cortright said. “This is an unacceptable waste of money. And, at the same time, you will paralyze traffic in the Portland region because a good share of those vehicles will divert to the I-205 crossing.” Cortright has repeatedly challenged information provided by the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program in the past. He accurately predicted in late 2025 that based on internal consultant documents, the overall bridge replacement costs were set to skyrocket. Sure enough, in March, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson and others announced that the bridge replacement program costs had jumped from between $5 billion and $7.5 billion to a figure between $13.5 billion and $15.2 billion. Cortright warned transportation commissioners during their Friday bistate tolling meeting that he had received copies of an internal, investment-grade analysis that outlined the risks of tolling just the I-5 Bridge without also placing tolls on the Interstate 205 Bridge just 6 miles east. The analysis indicates that traffic on the I-5 Bridge could fall from around 127,000 vehicles a day to 77,000 vehicles a day if just one bridge has tolls. “It’s pretty clear that tolling I-5 but not I-205 unbalances the transportation system in a pretty disastrous way,” said Chris Smith of Just Crossing Alliance, a coalition that advocates for an environmentally sustainable crossing. Zachary Lauritzen, a community organizer and former executive director at Oregon Walks, also expressed concern. “We know some people aren’t going to pop over to Target … and some people may work from home a couple days more a week to avoid the toll,” Lauritzen said. “But I think we all can agree that common sense tells us that tens of thousands of those trips are going to be diverted to I-205.” That will make neighborhoods in East Portland, east Multnomah County and Clackamas County less safe as more drivers pack the roads leading to and from the I-205 Bridge, Lauritzen said. The commissioners said they would take the comments into consideration as they discuss guidance for the bistate tolling subcommittee. But Carl See, deputy director for the Washington State Transportation Commission, reminded his peers that the Washington Legislature has prohibited tolls on the Washington side of the I-205 Bridge. Discounts, exemptions The commissioners have considered discounts and exemptions for low-income drivers and tribal members. Each of the four toll rate scenarios state transportation commissioners approved in October 2024 has built in a 50 percent discount for low-income households and individuals earning 200 percent or less than the federal poverty level ($31,920 for an individual and $66,000 for a family of four in 2026). An individual earning minimum wage in Washington ($17.13 an hour) and working full time would earn $35,630 a year — too much to qualify for the proposed discount. The Oregon and Washington transportation commissions will hold a joint meeting again in late 2026 or early 2027 to review the bistate tolling subcommittee’s recommendations. The commissioners plan to unveil their proposed toll rates, discounts and exemptions in late summer 2027. Tolling likely would begin on the current I-5 Bridge spans in the summer of 2028. Current toll rate scenarios range from $1.55 to $4.70, with tiered rates that would charge more depending on the time of day. The tolls are all expected to escalate annually, with three scenarios that increase the rate by 2.5 percent a year and one scenario that increases the rate by 3 percent every two years.

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