I-5 Bridge Program Enters Construction — and Wants to Know If the Region Has Enough Workers to Build It

August 15, 2026

The Interstate Bridge Replacement Program passed a milestone on July 1: the effort to replace the aging I-5 bridge between Vancouver and Portland officially moved into its construction phase, following completion of the environmental review process this spring.

The program’s Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement was published April 17, and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Washington Governor Bob Ferguson have both reaffirmed their states’ commitment to the project, noting the 109-year-old span’s vulnerability to collapse in a major earthquake, driven largely by timber support piles sitting in liquefaction-prone sand.

But moving into construction raises an immediate question for the regional building industry: who’s going to build it? The IBR Program has commissioned a Regional Infrastructure Workforce Study to assess the current and projected supply of construction workers and skilled tradespeople needed to support not just the bridge itself, but more than 100 public infrastructure projects slated across the region over the next five years.

The scale of the work ahead is significant. Contract packages already mapped out include the Columbia River Bridge itself — a four-to-six-year, $1 billion to $1.5 billion progressive design-build contract expected to advertise this year — along with a separate six-to-seven-year, $720 million to $1.1 billion approaches package for the roadway connections on both sides of the river, expected to advertise in 2027. Light rail track, systems, and station construction is budgeted separately at $190 million to $290 million.

With approximately $5.7 billion in committed funding, the program says it’s moving forward with a core set of projects as the foundation for the broader effort, even as total program costs have climbed — construction costs alone are up 58% since 2022 due to escalating materials, labor, and equipment prices.

For SW Washington contractors and subcontractors, the workforce study — paired with the contract package timeline — is worth watching closely as a leading indicator of where labor demand is headed over the next several years.

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