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Oregon legislators have until the end of the upcoming five-week session, which starts Feb. 3, to fund the Columbia River Crossing project, according to a letter from Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Otherwise, the 14-year-old project will be shelved, and attention will be shifted elsewhere, he wrote.

“Oregon must either decisively move the project to construction or refocus and reprioritize our resources,” Kitzhaber wrote to legislators. “A project in limbo is the worst and most expensive outcome for Oregon, and continuing expenditures to sustain work without progress is a waste of money and resources.”

In order to move forward, the Legislature would need to reauthorize $450 million in funding for the bridge project. Oregon also would need to reach agreements with the state of Washington prior to March 15 to secure financing, Kitzhaber wrote.

Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, chairman of the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee, could not predict whether the Legislature would move decisively on reauthorization of funding for the CRC.

“I am convinced that it is not possible now to have any specific infrastructure project that gains unanimous support,” he said. “If that is our bar, I am worried for our future.”

Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, chairman of the Senate Business and Transportation Committee, said it was time for legislators to “fish or cut bait.”

He expressed some frustration last week, writing to a Washington state lawmaker that he did not think the project would be brought to a vote.

“I just don’t know,” he said Monday. “I think it’s an issue if you ask members, most would probably prefer not to vote. But my gut level is if it’s put on the table, it passes. The risk of doing nothing is pretty high.”

Risks include potential collapse during a major earthquake as well as a high number of accidents on the bridge, Beyer said.

Federal funding also is on the line, he said, noting that Oregon is in line to receive more than $1 billion tied to construction of a light-rail line to Vancouver, Wash.

The state would need six to eight years more to get back to where it is now in terms of federal funding, Beyer said, if it were to shelve the project.