here's firedoglake:
The CRC: the Bridge with no beginning and no end.
Bad timing for Kitzhaber and company… The Washington Legislature is ready to put the bow on its dreaded Special Session and there is still a lot that won’t fit in the box. The last thing lawmakers want to go hunting for is the money to pay for a bridge that people don’t want, the state doesn’t need and no one but Governor Kitzhaber, so it seems, really believes will solve congestion problems. There are academics who study this problem; they publish learned monographs on the subject of congestion. Ands what they have found is that adding mre freeways just adds to the traffic problems.
And then there’s the height issue: not high enough for river freight, says the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has veto authority over the project, and CRC officials expect the agency to decide by Sept. 30 whether to issue the necessary bridge permit. but there may not be a decision from the Coast Guard by then. CRC planners need $450 million from Olympia and a Coast Guard permit by mid-October in order to apply for federal funding they describe as crucial and about to expire.
- KBOO