This week, both the House and Senate passed 2013–15 transportation budgets. They are both “bare-bones,” as Sen. Eide said of the Senate version. (In a policy brief last month, we wrote about the importance of funding transportation.)

The House-passed budget, ESHB 1864, passed April 16 by a 68-28 vote. 2013–15 spending would total $8.480 billion. It includes no new projects, and it would reduce total appropriated spending by $1.383 billion over 2011–13.

The Senate-passed budget, ESSB 5024, passed April 19, 47-0. Spending would total about $8.784 billion. It funds “few new items.”

Prior to the Senate bill being passed, the Senate came to an agreement on the I-5/Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project, which has been controversial. The Senate budget bill includes $81.8 million for CRC planning, but it also includes language that makes $76.9 million of that contingent on Coast Guard approval of the CRC permit. If the Coast Guard does not approve the permit, the funds would go to a new environmental impact statement for a redesign of the bridge. Additionally, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee must conduct a forensic audit of the project. (The House budget includes $49.7 million for planning.)

As background, the CRC is to be funded by the federal government, Oregon, and Washington. A few of the contentious parts of the current plans are that they include extension of Portland’s light rail to Vancouver over the bridge, and they would provide a clearance for river traffic of only 116 feet.

According to the CRC Navigation Impact Report (Nov. 2012), the current bridge lift has a clearance of 178 feet (the highest clearance in alternate channels on the Columbia is 72 feet). It has opened for vessel traffic an average of 209 times a year over the past five years. At 95 feet (the original plan’s clearance, which was rejected by the Coast Guard), “41 vessels would be restricted from passing a portion of the year, and 12 other vessels/users would not be able to pass at any time of year without mitigation.”

According to the new bridge permit application, at 116 feet, three users would be affected, and “these navigation transit impacts are expected to result in economic (revenue, employment and income) impacts.” For these three,

The height constrained activity averages 1-2 shipments per year, generating an average of $18 million in business revenues, $6 million in direct employee compensation, and approximately 80 direct jobs . . . . Mitigation discussions are ongoing, and no agreements have been reached to date. However, at this point total mitigation costs are estimated to range between $30 million (low) to $116 million (high).

Meanwhile, the House Transportation Chair has released a revised Connecting Washington package, including new projects funded with new revenue (I wrote about the original package here). We’ll have more on that soon.