From Vancouver, Washington, you’d never know that a massive highway project, ominously dubbed “carmageddon,” was underway seven miles away in downtown Portland on Monday morning.
Transportation officials have warned that gridlock from the closure of all southbound I-5 lanes in Portland’s Rose Quarter Improvement Project could back up traffic into Washington.
But during the first rush hour of the construction project, the eight big-screen TVs at the Washington State Department of Transportation Traffic Management Center showed cars speeding across the Interstate Bridge at their usual clip. Traffic was slightly heavier on the I-205 bridge a few miles to the east…