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Bob Ortblad

@bortblad

Civil Engineer, MBA 40-years P.E. & CPA Historian of 200 years of infrastructure Explored 70 countries

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21.11.2024
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Latest posts by Bob Ortblad @bortblad

The IBR’s public relations consultants are working overtime this weekend to spin the IBR’s new $13 to $17 billion estimate announcement.
Announcement was delayed from today to Tuesday.
The IBR has spent over $25 million on public relations consultants.

13.03.2026 16:40 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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ODOT's Abernethy Bridge project, already well behind schedule and over budget, is falling further behind The project's contractor is now offering a January 2028 completion date, ODOT officials told the Oregon Transportation Commission on Thursday.

ODOT's Abernethy Bridge project, already well behind schedule and over budget, is falling further behind

The Interstate Bridge Replacement Program has skyrocketed from about $6 billion in 2023 to more than $13 billion.
www.kgw.com/article/news...

13.03.2026 15:34 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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IBR’s $17 billion Estimate Panic

The IBR had no “Meeting Materials” available for tomorrow’s ESG March 13, 2026 Meeting and just canceled the meeting.
No Agenda
No Meeting Presentation
No Public Comments

The IBR has rescheduled a ESG March 17, 2026 Meeting.

12.03.2026 17:18 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1
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Letter: British Columbia’s new immersed tunnel can solve Interstate Bridge Replacement Program’s $17.7 billion problem
www.clarkcountytoday.com/opinion/lett...

10.03.2026 23:01 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Friday the 13th IBR style: Spinning a terrifying new cost estimate.

"IBR Cost Estimates: Delayed, manipulated hidden, and lied."

cityobservatory.org/friday-the-1...

10.03.2026 22:19 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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NJ Scales Back Part of Gov. Murphy’s Turnpike Boondoggle - Streetsblog New York City There’s now one less thing for New Yorkers to dislike about New Jersey.

Not too late to sacle back IBR's Boondoggle.

An Immersed Tunnel alternative; less cost, faster to build, safer, more earthquake resilient.
Fraudulently disqualfied by the IBR!

NJ Scales Back Part of Gov. Murphy’s Turnpike Boondoggle

nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/03/04/n...

08.03.2026 20:26 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Rebuilding a critical link: Key Bridge replacement battles soaring costs to restore Port of Baltimore traffic - Daily Commercial News Nearly two years after the catastrophic collapse of Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, a long-awaited and very costly rebuild of the lengthy span has moved into the construction phase. The skyline...

IBR will also go for a triple cost estimate?

Key Bridge replacement battles soaring costs to restore Port of Baltimore traffic
"The price tag for the project has surged to $5.2 billion, more than triple the initial estimate."
canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/usa...

06.03.2026 22:43 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Freeway fighters win! And a lesson for Portland – City Observatory

"As Metro President David Bragdon observed, Oregon and Washington DOT officials routinely lied and misled local officials about federal requirements and deadlines to block better and more affordable options."

IBR lied about an Immersed Tunnel option.

cityobservatory.org/freeway-figh...

06.03.2026 22:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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The Alaskan Way Viaduct spoiled Seattle’s waterfront for 70 years. Only 40 ft wide and 60 ft high the viaduct was a midget compared the IBR's bridge approaches.

At 232 ft wide and over 100 ft high, the IBR's approaches will decimate Vancouver and Hayden Island's riverfronts.

04.03.2026 22:23 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Letter: IBR’s money pit Bob Ortblad argues the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program is withholding a higher cost estimate while moving forward with limited funding and an unclear construction timeline.

www.clarkcountytoday.com/opinion/lett...

04.03.2026 18:15 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Doubtful IBR will release its promised March Estimate before the Washington Legislature ends.

Doubtful it will be any more accurate than WSDOT’s SR-520 Montlake Bridge estimate, only two bidders at 69% and 109% over WSDOT’s estimate.

02.03.2026 20:45 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Letter: Interstate Bridge Replacement $13.6 billion estimate is too low! Bob Ortblad argues the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program’s $13.6 billion cost estimate understates the true expense, citing comparable projects, construction challenges, and engineering assumption...

www.clarkcountytoday.com/opinion/lett...

02.03.2026 20:43 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Unnecessary, unaffordable add-ons likely to spell doom for the I-5 Bridge replacement project Three Southwest Washington legislators argue the Interstate Bridge Replacement’s rising costs and added features threaten its viability.

www.clarkcountytoday.com/news/unneces...

02.03.2026 20:37 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A turn-of-the-century confidence man George C. Parker sold the Brooklyn Bridge by telling buyers they could collect tolls.

The IBR (WSDOT, ODOT & consultants) has relied on the gullibility, greed, & vanity of our government officials to perpetrate a $17.7 billion con on OR and WA taxpayers.

26.02.2026 21:06 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Opinion: WSDOT secretary and I ‘obviously have very different definitions for the term cost-effective’ Clark County Today Editor Ken Vance sharply criticizes WSDOT Secretary Julie Meredith’s defense of the Interstate Bridge Replacement project, arguing the escalating cost estimates undermine claims the...

www.clarkcountytoday.com/opinion/opin...

26.02.2026 21:02 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1

“put a shovel in the dirt”
Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle

“We need to start with a bridge and work from there.”
Assistant IBR Administrator Ray Maybe

23.02.2026 22:31 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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An I-5 Immersed Tunnel and the preservation of the current bridges will cost half of IBR’s bridge and approaches and provide more lanes.

23.02.2026 20:43 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Letter: IBR’s billion dollar risk, another Abernethy Bridge financial disaster? Bob Ortblad raises concerns over the IBR project’s feasibility, comparing its costs to the Abernethy Bridge overruns and pointing to a hidden geotechnical risk.

www.clarkcountytoday.com/opinion/lett...

23.02.2026 20:41 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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B.C. budget hints changes to cost and timeline for new George Massey Tunnel | Urbanized The project to build a new tunnel to replace the George Massey Tunnel could see steep construction cost escalation and delays.

dailyhive.com/vancouver/ge...

22.02.2026 01:48 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Rep. John Ley, Rep. Ed Orcutt, and Sen. Jeff Wilson: Unnecessary, unaffordable add-ons likely to spell doom for the I-5 Bridge Replacement Project The Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) program is facing a crisis of its own making: a staggering $10 billion funding hole that WILL sink the project. Recent public records disclosures reveal the pro...

johnley.houserepublicans.wa.gov/2026/02/11/r...

17.02.2026 19:00 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

WSP, current general engineering consultant, and needs to be terminated.
We need a study by an international immersed tunnel consultant.

15.02.2026 01:48 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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IBR’s Gothic finance plan

IBR is presenting its finance plan to the WSTC.
Start construction now and pray for future funding. Maybe the IBR can sell indulgences if forgiven their transgressions.
Notre-Dame took 100 years to build. Cologne's Cathedral took 600 years.

14.02.2026 21:31 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 2
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‘Budget pothole’: Oregon’s transportation funding challenge comes into clearer focus Lawmakers are looking at freezing open positions and pulling money from certain programs as they work to avoid deep layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The $17.7 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement Project (IBR) will drain as decade of funding for a thousand ODOT jobs, and a hundred thousand potholes.
www.opb.org/article/2026...

13.02.2026 23:28 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Show Me The Money | Jerry Maguire | Tom Cruise
Show Me The Money | Jerry Maguire | Tom Cruise YouTube video by Born to Watch - A Movie Podcast

IBR needs to "Show Me The Money"

www.youtube.com/shorts/bVkhR...

12.02.2026 01:44 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Rep. John Ley discusses his bill calling for an audit of the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program
Rep. John Ley discusses his bill calling for an audit of the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program YouTube video by HRC All Access

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ENC...

12.02.2026 01:38 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1
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Five legislators want to demolish the current I-5 bridges, and spent $17.7 billion on the Interstate Bridge Replacement.

Local View: I-5 Bridge project urgent, vital
www.columbian.com/news/2026/fe...

Both the Brooklyn & Gold Gate Bridges are older, neither are slated for demolition.

09.02.2026 23:50 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Letter: The Interstate Bridge Replacement Program’s $141 million bribe can be better spent on sandwich steel-concrete tubes Bob Ortblad argues that an immersed tunnel using sandwich steel-concrete tubes would be a more cost-effective alternative to the current Interstate Bridge Replacement Program design.

www.clarkcountytoday.com/opinion/lett...

06.02.2026 14:35 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Letter: British Columbia’s new immersed tunnel can solve Interstate Bridge Replacement Program’s $17.7 billion problem Bob Ortblad argues that an immersed tunnel similar to a project underway in British Columbia could significantly reduce costs and impacts associated with the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program.

www.clarkcountytoday.com/opinion/lett...

03.02.2026 03:50 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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A Sino-Portuguese consortium wins a major Brazilian tunnel project

The Santos-Guarujá Tunnel- Sao Paulo is the same length of a potential I-5 Columbia River immersed tunnel, 2,800 feet.

$1.26 billion is bargain campared to IBR's $17.7 billion

Link:
macaonews.org/news/lusofon...

03.02.2026 02:03 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
We’re FINALLY Replacing this 65-Year-Old Tunnel! – The Fraser River Tunnel Project
We’re FINALLY Replacing this 65-Year-Old Tunnel! – The Fraser River Tunnel Project YouTube video by The Greater Discussions

For $3 billion (US) B.C. is building an eight lane tunnel longer and deeper than needed for an I-5 Columbia River immersed tunnel.
About half the cost of IBR's $5.9 billion bridge.

We’re FINALLY Replacing this 65-Year-Old Tunnel!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWhH...

01.02.2026 00:03 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0