[All-Gorge] 🚨 Driving on the "Wrong" Side of the Bridge? - HRWS Bridge Authority 4/13 to 5/11

The Hood River White Salmon Bridge Authority is moving forward with a counter-intuitive interchange design that would have you temporarily driving on the left side of the road when you land on the Oregon side. In our recap of the 4/13/26 to 5/11/26 meetings, we break down why engineers love the "Safety Paradox," why cyclists are raising concerns, and how the bi-state agency plans to manage its new sixty-seven million dollar budget.

In This Episode:

• Unanimous approval of the Authority's $66.9 million annual budget.
• The cash-flow friction keeping pressure on the Port of Hood River loan.
• A brewing regulatory standoff over replacing protected parkland.
• Federal lobbying efforts and the push for Bridge Investment Program (BIP) funding.

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Review agendas, packets, and public comment forms at the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority Website.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there, and welcome to your Open Gorge audio briefing. If you cross the Columbia River for work or play, you are going to want to hear about the latest plans for the new bridge, where the wind meets the shore, and where diamonds diverge. This is your Hood River White Salmon Bridge Authority update covering meetings from April 13th through May 11th. We're starting with the design of the Oregon side landing. Contractor Kewit is preparing its 60% design deliverables for the summer. They're proposing on the on-ramp for the bridge what's called a diverging diamond interchange, or DDI. Now, the design of a diverging diamond interchange is a little counterintuitive. It works by forcing drivers to temporarily cross over and drive on the left side of the road. It sounds wild, but engineers seem to love it. By shifting traffic to the left, it completely eliminates the dangerous left turn across uncoming traffic, which drastically reduces severe vehicle crashes. But there's a catch. Commissioner Arthur Babbitz pointed out what is incredibly safe for cars can actually be hostile for pedestrians and cyclists. Forcing active transit users to navigate in intersection where cars are actively switching sides requires serious safety infrastructure. The Authority is currently proposing a simple painted bike box, but local cycling advocates are going to be scrutinizing this heavily over the coming months. Turning now to the budget, the Authority's Budget Committee just unanimously approved its spending plan for the next fiscal year. If you've been listening to prior episodes, you know this was a pretty big deal. It rings in at nearly $67 million. Because the Bridge Authority currently operates with zero full-time employees, all of that money flows through highly specialized contractors. And while that budget number sounds large, the cash flow is incredibly tight. The authority doesn't even have direct revenue yet, so mounting administrative costs are keeping a heavy pressure on their line of credit with the Port of Hood River. To help navigate this maturing financial landscape, the board just hired Baker Tilley to manage complex state and local taxes across this by-state border. A quick look at the local parks before we go. There's a complex regulatory hurdle brewing around something called 6F mitigation. Federal law dictates that if you build transportation infrastructure over protected parkland, you have to buy new land to replace anything that it is reusing or putting construction on top of or otherwise removing. So the authority wants to improve the recreational facilities on the bridge site instead, but state and federal park agencies are actually pushing back. The authority is preparing to elevate this issue to the governor's level so they aren't forced into a costly land buying scramble. If you have creative ideas for this exchange of the park space that we're going to lose to where we could potentially get new recreation space, write into the Bridge Authority. And yes, I really do mean that. Space could be found in some fun places by locals who know this area best, and I think sometimes we can be surprised what's lurking right under our noses. We were also really excited to see updates from the Trades Career Day that was hosted on May 21st at Port Lot 1. They saw several hundred local high school students and their families explore careers in infrastructure. It included a really cool setup with an underwater welder inside a fair game dunk tank. The next meeting is today, May 27th at 2 p.m., so we're looking forward to delivering you updates from that next time. So for all the links and a deeper dive into these stories, please make sure to check out a text version of this newsletter. You've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, home of the Schemania Dispatch and the Click a Taddler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to schemania dispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.comslash open gorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and where diamonds diverge and the wind meets the sun, we will find you next time.