State Rep. John Ley, R-Vancouver, has introduced House Bill 2030 to enhance financial oversight and accountability for the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) Program, which seeks to replace the Interstate 5 bridge between Oregon and Washington.
The bill mandates an audit by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee to assess IBR Project spending, transparency and forecasting accuracy, a news release by Washington state Republicans stated. Ley cited past mismanagement and overspending in the failed Columbia River Crossing project as justification for the bill.
“I introduced this bill because we need to know where the money for this project is going,” Ley said in the news release. “Based on reports from a privately hired forensic accountant, the previous bridge replacement effort — the failed Columbia River Crossing project — was full of waste, fraud and abuse of the taxpayer trust.”
The audit would review financial reporting and project expenditures since 2019. It would also assess bridge usage and toll revenue forecasting, and evaluate the Washington State Department of Transportation’s financial oversight and auditing practices, the news release stated.
Ley stated that one of his greatest concerns is the current gross overestimation of future transit riders, used by project leaders to justify the inclusion of the $2 billion light rail.
“Currently, less than 1,000 people use mass transit over the Columbia River on both the I-5 and I-205 bridges. However, IBR project leaders claim that by 2045, there will be between 26,000 and 33,000 daily riders on the I-5 bridge corridor alone. That’s not realistic. Nobody believes there will be a 30-to-50-fold increase in transit ridership over the next 20 years,” Ley stated in the news release.
The audit by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee would be due by Dec. 1, 2027, if House Bill 2030 passes.
