Bob Ortblad
bortblad.bsky.social
Bob Ortblad
@bortblad.bsky.social
100 followers 180 following 95 posts
Civil Engineer, MBA 40-years P.E. & CPA Historian of 200 years of infrastructure Explored 70 countries
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
WA & OR can save $5 billion

Don’t add one lane for 5 miles & rebuild 7 interchanges.
Repurposed current bridges.
Scrap Park & Ride & build housing.
Build an Immersed Tunnel, less cost & time, safer for barges, salmon & people.
“JUST DO IT” and “Keeping the lights on” are not rational arguments to approve $2 billion for the IBR.

Jeff Baker stated the facts, no bridge design, and no cost estimate. No reason to approve $2 billion.
"I also struggle with the notion that we’re putting $2 billion forward here without having an answer on what this bridge is going to look like… I can’t support the request based on wrong information.”

— Jeff Baker, Oregon Transportation Commission
bikeportland.org/2025/10/30/n...
'No' vote an ominous first for Interstate Bridge project
While it was just a procedural step, Commissioner Jeff Baker was not having it.
bikeportland.org
Greg Johnson is jumping ship!

IBR may want to delete its link to last summer’s political love fest of President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America”.
Link:
www.flickr.com/photos/19413...
Greg is leaving his political crew on a sinking ship.
Is the Interstate Bridge Destined to Fail?
Joe Cortright interviewed on the Lars Larson Show

Link;
cityobservatory.org/lars-larson-...
Reposted by Bob Ortblad
NMF co-founder Joe Cortright @cityobservatory.bsky.social spoke to KGW about the latest updates on the Interstate Bridge Replacement - turns out the project is not doing so hot!

Where’s the accountability from the Oregon legislature and the Governor?

#orpol #orleg
What if nobody ever came to Port of Vancouver's Terminal 1 Public Market?

A New Orleans Neighborhood Confronts the Racist Legacy of a Toxic Stretch of Highway
NPR:
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
Greg Johnson had a massive conflict of interest. He was a WSP Senior VP. Hired as the IBR Administrator he managed a $76 million contract with WSP.
Reposted by Bob Ortblad
Breaking news: Interstate Bridge Replacement Project Administrator Greg Johnson is stepping down from his role in the project effective Dec. 31.

He will be replaced by Carley Francis from WashDOT.
IBR's cost could double or triple.

Oregon DOT’s “Reign of Error” grows worse.
By Joe Cortright

cityobservatory.org/reign_of_err...
WSDOT failed to reduce noise on SR 520, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and I-5 Ship Canal Bridge.

IBR's bridge will be loud!
IBR administrator Greg Johnson at every public meeting pleads to get “shovels in the ground”.

He wants to dig a Willie Brown hole.
“Start digging a hole and make it so big, there’s no alternative to coming up with the money to fill it in.”
July 15, 2021
IBR’s error-filled “Tunnel Concept Assessment” disqualified a tunnel.

June 17, 2022
USCG suggests tunnel evaluation.

Feb. 8, 2023
USCG says IBR may not have a permittable alternative.

IBR continues to ignore tunnel alternative.

Link USCG
www.dco.uscg.mil/Our-Organiza...
"While the former model projected 21,600 daily light rail riders based on 2045 estimates using pre-pandemic ridership numbers, the STOPS model estimates 4,600 to 5,400 daily light rail riders based on fall 2024 ridership data, Schlupp told C-Tran board members."

clbn.us/rmg8j
Light rail, express bus operation on new Interstate 5 Bridge projected to cost $10.3M annually, less than half of last estimate
New estimates indicate the cost of operating and maintaining light rail trains and express buses on the planned Interstate 5 replacement bridge will likely be less than half the $21.8 million annual p
clbn.us
IBR's wildly inflated ridership estimate reduced by Federal software model.

October 14, 2025 C-TRAN Regular Board Meeting
player.invintus.com?clientID=291...
IBR backpedaling extremely inflated light rail ridership estimate.
21,600 to 4,600 daily riders.
Mayor McEnerny-Ogle is using "the cost will rise" time-share sales pitch to sell IBR's dangerous bridge, that's too low for the Coast Guard.

Vancouver mayor warns costly delays if I-5 bridge construction doesn't start on time
katu.com/news/local/i...
IBR’s freeway expansion & bridge will:
Destroy 35 businesses and 43 homes, but build 1,270 parking spaces on 6 acres of downtown Vancouver!
Loom over Terminal 1 Public Market
Take an acre of Fort Vancouver
Demolish the Hurley Building
Have 80’ crazy high Transit Station
Go Safe Labs ranks the Glen Jackson I-205 the 8th most accident hot spot in the country. An S-curve with rain & ice make it treacherous.
katu.com/news/local/n...
IBR’s bridge will be more dangerous. Steeper at -4% with a tighter S-curve and an icy North-face, it will be deadly.