Image of the New St, Andrews bridge, an uninspired design but interesting eco-concrete (seen in bad sculpture) has potential

The New York Times has a fascinating article on green minded, pollution scrubbing cement being used on the St. Andrews Bridge in Minneapolis. Yes it's the replacement for the one that collapsed...but might it have an application for our Columbia River Crossing on I-5? Mayor Adams has made a promise of A Better Bridge and his political future rests on delivering it. The St. Andrews project only uses the cement on sculptures but a Portland bridge design could possibly incorporate it more fully?

This Columbia River Crossing is still a vague blind man's elephant and as I've mentioned numerous times it is going to take an architect to really bring this project some coherency and make a truly better bridge. How about a design competition?

Right now the two mayors are the leading voices on the design issues and frankly that's just wrong. What the politicians need is an architect whom they can torment into being on time and on budget while the architect can create designs that do more than simply speak to one issue or group. A design competition gives people a visual, till then the discussion is about lanes, dollars, concrete, wind turbines, bridge heights, where people live and other red herrings that only see part of the picture. A good design has to address all of those things and much more, a politician can duck or steamroller issues but a bridge embodies them and I think the two mayors should avoid their current situation. Let the designs embody the discussion so the politicians can politic.