Interstate 5 and the proposed Cowlitz casino-resort

A casino would mean a significant increase in I-5 traffic delays.

The Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River is already at least at capacity, and stop-and-go traffic is on the rise. The average weekday July traffic count is 137,000 vehicles, according to WDOT. A mega-casino-resort at Exit 16 would burden the bridge, especially during peak hours transit in and out of Portland, where most of its market resides.

The DEIS for the proposed casino-resort anticipates that 91 percent of visitors would come from the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area. On average, 93,317 daily trips are made on I-5 to the point of the La Center junction, according to the DEIS’ Traffic Impact Study. The proposed casino-resort would, according to the DEIS, add 13,616 daily trips and 17,820 Saturday trips to the circulation network, according to the DEIS. Given that 82 percent of trips to the casino-resort would come from the south,[1] the majority would surely involve I-5. That is a considerable strain for one enterprise to add to a critical roadway.

2004 Census estimates say the population of Washington’s Clark and Skamania counties is 403,000. Oregon’s Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties are at 1,524,000. If Oregon and Washington residents have similar rates of casino attendance, four out of five of those trips would involve crossing the Columbia River. Imagine the impact on the already at-capacity I-5 Bridge, not to mention spillover to I-205.

The tribe’s memorandum of understanding with Clark County says nothing about mitigating excessive traffic levels on the interstate or interstate bridge, and the DEIS’ mitigation measures are concerned only with the La Center-Interstate 5 interchange, for the preferred alternative at La Center, and with the Ridgefield interchange, for Alternative E.

By not considering impacts to Interstate 5—not to mention Interstate 205—the DEIS fails to address a very real concern of residents and businesses in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, not to mention those relying on the interstate for transit and transport up and down the West Coast.

[1] DEIS, 4.8-1