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Oregon and Washington鈥檚 governors will make an announcement about the Columbia River Crossing at a press conference at Hayden Island on Monday. Govs. John Kitzhaber and Chris Gregoire are expected to announce the bridge type, efforts to take advantage of federal funding as well as plans to keep the project on schedule.

Three bridge designs are on the table for the project that would replace the existing Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River from Portland to Vancouver, Wash. The least expensive of the designs is a $340 million deck-truss version. A cable-truss bridge would cost $390 million but is preferred by Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Vancouver city councilors and architects as the more attractive design. The third option is the most expensive: a tiered-arch bridge with an estimated price tag of $430 million.

In February, Kitzhaber and Gregoire announced they would ask for a review of the three designs by an interstate panel of experts including heads of both states鈥� transportation departments. The governors said at that time that they would focus on the panel鈥檚 recommendation and would look for the most 鈥渟afe, reliable, and cost-effective option鈥� for the project.

That panel recommended the deck-truss option, as the least expensive option that would face fewer environmental and regulatory hurdles. While the panel contended in its recommendation that the more expensive options would take more time to pass through those hurdles, Adams wrote in a letter March 17 that his staff found those issues would not cause significant delays.