Wash. House passes bill on I-5 bridge replacement

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – Washington’s House of Representatives has passed a bill seeking to jumpstart plans for replacing the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River.

KOIN-TV reports (https://goo.gl/wyczcL ) that the measure, filed by Vancouver Democrat Sharon Wylie, aims to start preliminary planning work related to the project. It’s one of the first steps in getting a new bridge project going after the last effort, the Columbia River Crossing project, died in 2014.

Wylie said bridge congestion is worsening due to increased truck traffic and the construction of a new casino north of Vancouver.

The bill, along with a related one in the Senate, passed 60-38 Monday. It calls for an inventory of work done for the Columbia River Crossing project and would create a committee of stakeholders and Department of Transportation employees in Oregon and Washington.

Engineers say the existing bridge could collapse in a big earthquake. Cost estimates for the last bridge project neared $3 billion.