Gluesenkamp Perez Calls on Coast Guard to Approve Cost-Effective Fixed-Span Replacement of the Interstate (I-5) Bridge

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last night, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) sent a letter to Rear Admiral Arex Avanni, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Northwest District, to call on him to approve a cost-effective fixed-span replacement for the aging Interstate (I-5) Bridge.

“It would be shortsighted to sacrifice our industrial economy suspending a fiction of a limitless military budget,” said Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez. “Normal people can’t afford tolls, and they certainly don’t want a bridge that costs billions more for negligible strategic value.”

The full letter can be found here.

A fixed-span bridge is likely to cost more than a billion dollars less than a moveable-span and would end the current bridge raises that cause traffic backups. There is broad local agreement among Columbia River users that the fixed-span option is the ideal path forward.

Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez helped secure $2.099 billion in federal funding for the I-5 Bridge replacement project, including a $1.499 billion Bridge Investment Program (BIP) grant in July of 2024 and a $600 million Mega grant in December of 2023.

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