Columbia River Crossing managers will begin closing the project Monday, ending assignments for 96 government workers and consultants in a Vancouver office.

Opponents are celebrating the demise of the plan to link Portland and Vancouver with a $3.4 billion bridge, highway and light-rail complex.

Stunned CRC supporters are trying to pick up pieces of the decade-long initiative that shattered Saturday in the Washington Legislature.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber declared the plan dead in a weekend statement. "I am extremely disappointed that our legislative partners in the Washington state Senate failed to address the clear and present safety and economic need for this essential I-5 bridge," he said.

The collapse of the mega project, which occurred when senators declined to consider a $10 billion transportation package that included the CRC, would literally send planners back to the drawing board –- if there were one. But Washington, at least, has ended authority to the extent that no funding exists for orderly closure.

Opponents and supporters of the project, which cost $170 million to plan, still don’t agree on much. But they concur that there’s no chance of reviving the initiative through another special legislative session in Washington or any other means.

Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver

"The main lesson I hope that government bureaucrats have learned from this is, you should listen to everybody from the beginning," said Washington Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, an opponent who saw light rail as a conspiracy. "The CRC has been less than honest with people about facts, about deadlines."

"We need to start again," said Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, a supporter who still favors light rail. The next plan, he said, "Has to engage the general public better, has to be more inspiring, less utilitarian, something that people want to leave behind … for their children, or their children's children."

Several alternate concepts already exist for links to replace the parallel I-5 bridges built in 1917 and 1958. But anyone intending to drive across or through one of them soon will face a much longer wait than commuters confront daily between Vancouver and Delta Park.

The CRC took years to advance through hoops such as local planning, environmental impact procedures, a bureaucratic record of decision and an application for a bridge permit that the Coast Guard is still technically considering. Even projects envisioned at a fraction of the price will face many of the same hurdles.

William "Chris" Girard Jr., chief executive officer of Plaid Pantry stores, viewed the CRC as a financial debacle. But he likes aspects of a so-called Common Sense Alternative described in a YouTube video.

The $1.8 billion project envisioned by architect George Crandall and mass-transit advocate Jim Howell would phase in railroad-bridge renovation and a series of spans for cars, trucks, trains, cyclists and pedestrians. Its centerpiece would be an elegant, two-tower cable-stay bridge with trains whisking passengers between Vancouver Station and Portland’s Union Station in 10 to 12 minutes.

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“There needs to be at least one additional crossing,” over the Columbia River, said Girard, adding that the project should be separable into phases. “Some people are saying it’ll be at least 10 years before we can do that. It’s not true.”

Economist Joe Cortright, who consulted for Girard in opposing the CRC, advocates a series of small, smart investments during an era of fewer miles driven by motorists. The CRC, Cortright said, was “the last gasp of the highway-building dinosaur. They had this world view that car traffic was going to increase every single year without limit.”

Kitzhaber has already directed Oregon Department of Transportation officials to explore improvements to existing interchanges, increasing safety and cutting congestion.

“I have asked ODOT to review all of the work on the Oregon side of the project to determine if any stand-alone investments could be made to improve safety and reduce congestion on a smaller scale,” the governor said in his statement. “That work will be subject for further legislative review.”

CRC officials declined Sunday to comment on the demise of their project or next steps. Fifty-nine consultants from more than a dozen companies work in the CRC’s rented downtown Vancouver offices, along with officials seconded from agencies including ODOT, Washington’s Transportation Department, Tri-Met and C-Tran.

Rep. Moeller said Oregon and Washington would each be required to reimburse the federal government tens of millions of dollars from the $170 million spent. But state officials said the federal government imposes no such requirement for money expended in good faith.

One fix that those on either side of the CRC debate endorse is renovating the BNSF Railway Bridge that crosses the Columbia west of the Interstate 5 Bridge.

The point would be to move, closer to midstream, a section of the bridge that pivots to admit tall vessels. The improvement would straighten the route for large ships, many of which could then pass beneath the tallest section of the I-5 span instead of requiring bridge lifts that snarl highway traffic.

In addition to that improvement, Sen. Benton said, planners could consider a highway bridge between Camas, Wash., and Interstate 84 near Troutdale, or links near Ridgefield, Wash., or St. Helens. The beauty of those, to Benton’s eye: none would include light rail.

-- Richard Read