OPB’s First Look: Paying for a new I-5 bridge

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.

Good morning, Northwest.

Replacing the Interstate 5 bridge connecting Oregon and Washington could require large mitigation payments to four businesses along the Columbia River.

OPB’s Erik Neumann leads off today’s newsletter with a look into why it’s still bridge planners’ favored option.

Also this morning, an annual survey shows the biggest issues for Portland metro area voters, and Oregon State starts to feel some financial pressure.

Here’s your First Look at Friday’s news.

—Bradley W. Parks

Records show how $140M might be paid to 4 Columbia River companies to offset effects of Interstate Bridge design

The multibillion-dollar effort to replace the Interstate 5 bridge connecting Oregon and Washington has been politically fraught for years. The current drawbridge is nearly a century old, lacks seismic upgrades, and has narrow lanes that create traffic bottlenecks.

However, replacing it will affect neighboring businesses. Bridge planners previously said a 116-foot-high bridge would require $140 million in payments to companies operating along the Columbia River.

New details of these mitigation payments were released to OPB through a public records request. Officials say paying them would allow them to pursue a more affordable design. (Erik Neumann)

Learn more

✉️ Are you enjoying First Look? Forward this email your friends.

3 things to know this morning

• The biggest issues facing Portland include homelessness, high taxes, the rising cost of living and, for the first time, federal immigration enforcement, according to an annual survey. (Kyra Buckley) 
• Enrollment in Oregon State University’s e-campus is sluggish this school year and contributing to a projected $12 million operating budget shortfall. (Tiffany Camhi) 
• Federal immigration officials took a man facing charges related to a domestic dispute into custody hours after his trial began in Clark County Superior Court this week, in a move some observers say may be unprecedented in Washington state. (Erik Neumann)

Headlines from around the Northwest

• Rebecca Kilgore, devoted Portland singer of swing standards, dies at 76 (Alexa Peters)
• Vancouver among school districts facing federal investigation over trans athletes (Noel Gasca and Elizabeth Miller)
• Columbia County renewable diesel refinery faces another construction setback (Alejandro Figueroa)
• Springfield Public Schools to cut 27 employees amid mid-year budget gap (Rebecca Hansen-White)
• Washington may ban sales of farmed octopus (Jerry Cornfield)
• Trail Blazers overcome Avdija’s absence to beat the Hawks 117-101 (Associated Press)
• No. 11 Iowa women defeat Oregon in a wire-to-wire 74-66 victory (Associated Press)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• Tracking Oregon’s progress in reducing climate impact of its public employees retirement fund
• Prospective parents lose thousands of dollars after Portland-area surrogacy agency closes

Superabundant recipe: Wafu pasta puttanesca packs briny punch

Depending on the kind of shopping you do, you can often probably pull together a perfectly serviceable puttanesca from stuff you already have — canned tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, olives, chile flakes and dry pasta are the gist of it.

But have you ever considered adding seafood?

This recipe does just that, borrowing some brininess and acidity from wafu, or “Japanese-style” cooking. To pull it off, all you need is some canned or jarred tuna and a few tablespoons of mentaiko — pollock or cod that’s salted and seasoned with chili powder. (Heather Arndt Anderson)

Learn more

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.