4/16/08

Sole red light?

Today I went to the Portland Business Alliance breakfast where they spoke about the Columbia River Crossing. It's a huge project to replace the existing I-5 bridge, which was build in 1907 - pre-internal combustion traffic, with a $4 billion project with up to 12 lanes, bike and pedestrian traffic, toll booths, and space for light rail.

The panelists were Metro Councilor (and former Pres. of the BTA) Rex Burkholder, Vancouver, WA's mayor Royce Pollard, and Monica Isbell of the Starboard Alliance Company, LLC. In all the talk seemed to be a soft-sell on the business leaders of Portland to endorse replacing the bridge. One audience member who said he worked with Audubon society and the 1,000 Friends of Oregon commented that building such a large bridge will just cause more traffic. I think that the only solution here, much as I dislike it, is to charge a toll on bridge traffic. That might encourage light rail usage.

One thing struck me, however. Mayor Pollard said that the I-5 bridge is the only place in the whole US interstate infrastructure that has a red light (It goes on when the bridge raises.) I thought: "That can't really be the only place in the US, can it?"

I searched google for "only red light" interstate highway but the only confirmation I found was referring to the CRC itself:
The bridge has the only red light on I-5 between Mexico and Canada, too.
So, is there another red light anywhere in the interstate system?

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