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Editor's note, Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author
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alone and may not reflect the editorial position of Clark County today.com.
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On KGW-8's straight talk, Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnurney Ogle, who has no engineering
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qualifications, made several serious and incorrect engineering statements.
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Asked about an immersed tunnel and preservation of current bridges, the mayor incorrectly
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claimed a tunnel needs bedrock.
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She supports the Interstate Bridge replacement program bridge design that requires support
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from bedrock that is over 200 feet deep, which can only be reached by risky and costly
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An immersed tunnel is supported in soft sand by buoyancy.
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It displaces its weight like a floating bridge.
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This could save over $1 billion on foundation costs.
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The mayor said, I don't want to be under the Columbia River in a tunnel when an earthquake
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Washington State Department of Transportation and University of Washington Geotechnical
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experts claim a tunnel is the safest place to be in an earthquake and made a video explaining
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Visit ClarkCountyToday.com and find this story for the link.
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Mayor Anne claims the current bridges are not seismically safe due to wooden piles,
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a Douglas fir tree sunk in mud.
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Wooden piles supported the London Bridge for more than 700 years.
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Seattle's Fremont, Ballard, University and Aurora bridges are all supported by wooden
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piles and have experienced five major earthquakes with no damage.
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These bridges are in a higher earthquake risk zone than the Vancouver I-5 bridges.
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90 120 foot long piles support each of the current bridge peers.
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These piles are closely spaced and create a case on that is probably more immune to an
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earthquake than the Interstate Bridge replacement programs design of only 8-5 250 foot long
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drilled shafts for each bridge peer.
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Japanese and Canadian studies claim that tightly spaced wooden piles provide earthquake
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The mayor also blames the wooden piles for the bounce a truck makes on the current bridges.
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Every bridge, steel or concrete has a perceptible bounce with a heavy truck crossing.
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The Interstate Bridge replacement program plans to spend $7.65 billion and nine years
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of construction for just its bridge.
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British Columbia is building an 8-lane immersed tunnel under the Fraser River that is longer
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and deeper than a feasible Columbia River I-5 immersed tunnel for less than $3 billion
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and in only four years.
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An I-5 immersed tunnel would also avoid the devastating impact of bridge approaches on
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Vancouver and Hayden Island.
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When the mayor was asked how do you like the design she responded with a long ah and
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pivoted to the bridge to avoid the discussion of the devastating approaches.
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The mayor also stated there's never been a project in the United States or Europe, China
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or Japan that came in at that initial estimate.
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It's always doubled or multiplied by three and five.
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Britain's Ted Williams Tunnel, an immersed tunnel of 12 segments, each 300 feet long,
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was completed within its budget.
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Baltimore's Fort McKenry Tunnel, an immersed tunnel of 32 segments, each 300 feet long,
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was completed for $100 million below its $825 million budget.
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A Columbia River I-5 immersed tunnel would need only nine segments, each 300 feet long.
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The mayor's incorrect and misleading engineering statements are forgivable because she has
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been lied to by the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program and its consulting engineer WSP paid
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$100 million and public relations consultants paid $25 million.
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This letter to the editor was submitted by Bob Orteblad of Seattle.
