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Fewer lanes on the proposed 12-lane Columbia River Crossing bridge would require more aggressive traffic demand measurements, such as tolling and car pool programs, according to an engineering report.

The plan was commissioned by the city of Portland in an attempt to decrease the number of lanes on the planned bridge to lower project cost and encourage sustainable transportation. The Project Sponsors Council, a group charged with advising the project, discussed the report at a meeting on Friday.

The report by engineering firm URS Corporation examined 10-lane and eight-lane alternatives for the Interstate 5 bridge that would span the Columbia River from Portland to Vancouver, Wash. The report found that without some sort of traffic mitigation, a bridge with fewer than 12 lanes would cause traffic to bottleneck.

However, reducing the number of lanes could reduce the cost of the project by at least $50 million, according to the report.