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Oregon Gov. Kate Brown joined Washington Gov. Jay Inslee at the Vancouver waterfront on Monday in a bid to place new urgency on replacing the Interstate Bridge over the Columbia River.

鈥淭his bridge could fall down any day with a small seismic event,鈥� Inslee said.

Monday’s event, held at a new office building at The Waterfront Vancouver with a view of the bridge, came as a show of unity and purpose for the leaders of two states whose last attempt to rebuild the bridge dissolved into inaction and finger-pointing.

Inslee said those days of interstate acrimony are over.

鈥淭his is a new time and a new day in a variety of ways,鈥� Inslee said, pointing to changes in the Washington Legislature and scientific advances that have deepened the understanding of seismic risks in the Pacific Northwest.

The two states have pledged a total of $44 million to form a joint bridge office to study past plans and evaluate new options. The previous attempt to build a new I-5 bridge ground to a halt in 2013 after the Washington Legislature declined to fund that state’s share of the Columbia River Crossing project.

Recently, a joint committee has met to begin anew the process of rallying for a new bridge.

Inslee took the lead in Monday’s press conference, saying the Interstate Bridge must be replaced.

鈥淭here is no option other than making this investment,鈥� he said.

The bridge opened as a single span in 1917. The second span opened 41 years later.

In recent years, booming population growth in the Portland-metro area has added to pressures on the bridge. Many Portland-area workers live in Vancouver, where home prices are typically more affordable, and cross the bridge as part of their commutes. At the same time, economic growth and the rise of e-commerce shipping have greatly increased freight traffic.

鈥淚t is a traffic bottleneck that is not consistent with the economies of Oregon and Washington,鈥� Inslee said.

Public agencies in Oregon are scrambling to prepare infrastructure for a sizable earthquake that could render many metro-area bridges impassable. In Portland, only the Sellwood Bridge and Tilikum Crossing are considered likely to remain operable after a worst-case earthquake.

The Interstate Bridge conversations mirror a push in Multnomah County to replace the 93-year-old Burnside Bridge.

Any replacement for the Interstate Bridge would cost billions of dollars. The price tag of the Columbia River Crossing was estimated at $3.3 billion to $4.1 billion in 2011, and construction costs have escalated sharply since.

Local opposition to light rail in Vancouver has created headaches for the project. Both Inslee and Brown insisted that any new bridge must carry what they called 鈥渉igh-capacity transit,鈥� but neither specified whether that would be light rail or bus service. The existing bridge has minimal accommodations for non-vehicle users.

鈥淲hat I think is critically important is we invest in high-capacity public transit on this bridge,鈥� Brown said.

Inslee suggested a federal infrastructure package would need to be approved to provide funding for the project. The bridge is a critically important arterial connection that should be a national infrastructure priority, he said.

The press conference drew leaders from both states, although Portland commissioners were absent. Inslee planned to travel to Salem later Monday for more meetings with Oregon officials.

William Myers, executive secretary of the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council,聽said a Columbia River bridge project would be a boon for the trades.

鈥淚t’s going to put a lot of families to work,鈥� he said.