Hayden Island residents have made some headway in their drive to make the Columbia River Crossing project focus more on their livability through several key engineering adjustments.

 At last month’s CRC Project Sponsors Council meeting, CRC Transit Manager Steve Witter spoke about the numerous meetings between the CRC and various Hayden Island citizen groups that took place in the wake of December’s PSC meeting, where residents spoke out against the CRC cost-cutting project refinements.  

Intended to shave $650 million off the project’s $4 billion budget, the refinements were seen by island residents as going against the livability requirements of the city’s own Hayden Island Plan, primarily by choosing a project design that would cut the island in half and bulldoze its only grocery store and pharmacy.

Witter presented the adjustments with Brad Howton, a former Hayden Island resident who lived and worked on the island for 21 years and is a member of the Portland Working Group, which includes representatives from the island, Kenton neighborhood,  Safeway, the Jantzen Beach SuperCenter and more. Howton reported that the adjustments align with the Hayden Island Plan and “reduce the footprint” of the project.

Specifically, said Howton, “We’ve changed the size of the perimeter road around the island, making it smaller, and we’ve changed the format and general design of the [island interchange near I-5] so it will accommodate projected demand and make the traffic grid more effective.”  

Carley Francis, a spokesperson with the CRC, explained the more effective interchange. 

"Instead of a split, single-point urban interchange, the new plan features a split, tight diamond interchange," said Francis. "The diamond design uses two signals instead of one on both North Hayden Island Drive and North Jantzen Drive to control traffic between Hayden Island and the highway. "This design makes it easier to put more crosswalks across these roads for better pedestrian connectivity - a critical component of the Hayden Island Plan," Francis said. 

Most significantly, there will be a new East-West connector road under I-5 called Tomahawk Island Drive, a local road which will allow residents to cross I-5 without interfacing with highway traffic. Witter said there are currently no cost estimates for these proposals, and Francis said that a visual rendering of the new adjustments is not currently available.

One of the most contentious issues raised by Hayden Islanders at the December PSC meeting was that the project refinements would require demolishing the Safeway on Hayden Island Drive, the only source of groceries and pharmaceuticals for an elderly population with limited mobility. Despite the adjustments made by CRC engineers, that hasn’t changed. Francis said “there is no guarantee” that the current Safeway could be saved, or that another Safeway would be built to replace it.

Still, Roger Staver, president of the Hayden Island Neighborhood Network, said he felt that the CRC team was “doing very well in working with [stakeholders],” and was impressed with their outreach effort.