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The directors of the Oregon and Washington departments of transportation will brief the governors of their respective states next week on new final bridge type recommendations for the Columbia River Crossing project.

Govs. John Kitzhaber of Oregon and Chris Gregoire of Washington released on Feb. 3 calling for the leaders of those departments to discontinue further work on the open-web box girder bridge design, which had been the proposed alternative.

After a draft meeting of the CRC Project Sponsors Council on Friday, ODOT Director Matthew Garrett and WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond said they had not yet decided on what alternative they would recommend.

The options include a composite-deck truss structure, which would cost about $340 million, a cable-stay bridge, at a cost of about $400 million, and a tied-arch bridge, which would cost about $430 million.

At the meeting, experts from the council leaned toward the cable-stay and tied-arch options, but the two transportation directors said they will likely talk more over the weekend and early into the week of Feb. 21 before deciding on anything.

“We want to fully inform the governors as to where we see this playing out,” Garrett said. “As to a specific type, I’m not sure yet. We need to walk through the issues of what brings the most certainty as far as cost and schedule.”

Garrett said he plans to verbally brief Kitzhaber on Feb. 22. The two agencies will also come up with a more formal draft recommendation by the end of that week, he added.

“I think the leadership at this point is really coming from the governors,” Garrett said. “So we want to make sure we give them the best advice as far as financing, timing and safety options.”

Hammond said she hadn’t yet scheduled her meeting with Gregoire, but anecdotally she said the cable-stay bridge seemed to be the most popular option.

“We’re not quite decided on a type yet, but we want to make sure we pick one that will keep us on schedule and will cost the least,” Hammond said. “We also want to make sure we’re addressing the environmental issues.”

Both directors mentioned the decision will come down to risks and uncertainty – that is to say which bridge is the least risky and the most certain to be completed on time.

“The governors are pretty adamant that we get to a decision here,” Hammond said. “We’ve been at this for 13 years.”

The cable-stay option could lead to some problems, she added, because it might require additional environmental assessments, and it also might have height issues that would require permitting from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The composite-deck truss type, on the other hand, matches the best with the environmental work that’s already been done, she said.

The two state governors are scheduled to meet with federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood later in the week after the briefing, Hammond added.

After the draft recommendations are formally documented – the plan is to do that by the end of next week – the departments will go forward with another public comment period for the selected bridge design, which will probably happen sometime in March, Hammond and Garrett said.