PORTLAND, Ore. — After more than six years of planning, the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project will finally begin construction next year — or at least, that’s the plan.
The project still needs to hit a number of key milestones before it can break ground, making the next six months a very high-stakes time for the project — which is why it came as a surprise last month when IBR Program Administrator Greg Johnson, who has been the leader and public face of the project since 2020, announced that he plans to step down in December.
That means Johnson will be departing before two of those upcoming milestones arrive; the project still needs to finish its long-delayed environmental review and receive final federal approval, and before that can happen, the U.S. Coast Guard also needs to sign off on the planned 116-foot height of the new bridge…