Excerpts from an editorial in the Columbian:
Washingtonians are learning a lot more these days about bridges and commercial trade, as we realize that virtually every product we use comes to us by truck, much of it through ports. The Associated Press reported recently that $10 billion in freight crosses the Skagit River annually, a great deal of it headed for California and Mexico via our Interstate 5 Bridge. Canadian vehicles using that bridge have almost doubled in the past decade; in 2012 the total was almost 2 million.
The economically harmful traffic congestion in Mount Vernon was caused by a bridge accident, and the problem could be mostly relieved in a month or so. The bridge congestion here has grown for decades through neglect of infrastructure. The longer the inaction continues, the more it will cost Clark County in commerce and jobs.