Toll rates were previously going to be set this summer, with collection on the current bridges starting in spring 2026. Everything has now been pushed back a year.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Drivers who have been dreading the start of tolling on the Interstate Bridge next year appear set for a bit of a reprieve; toll collection now appears to have been pushed out to 2027, according to the agenda packet for an upcoming Thursday meeting of the Oregon Transportation Commission.
The commission and its Washington counterpart were previously scheduled to set the official tolling rates later this year, which would’ve been followed by the installation of tolling cameras on the twin bridges and a tentative spring 2026 start date for toll collection. That whole timeline now appears to have been delayed by a year.
The tolls are — at the moment — projected to bring in up to $1.6 billion in revenue to help cover the cost of replacing the Interstate Bridge. The megaproject is currently expected to cost anywhere from $5 billion to $7.5 billion, with the rest of the bill covered by the two states and the federal government.
In a letter to the commission, Oregon Department of Transportation director Kris Strickler wrote that the tolling delay is due to some other processes taking longer; the Federal Highway Administration has revised the schedule for the project’s ongoing environmental review due to the high volume of feedback received during the public comment period last fall.
The Washington State Department of Transportation is also working on a Level 3 Toll Traffic and Revenue Study, which will help inform the process when the commissions set the toll rates, and the results of that study are anticipated to come “toward the end of 2025,” according to the letter.
The adjustment doesn’t appear to have changed the project’s overall schedule; the project team has previously said that they expect to complete the environmental review process by the end of this year and receive federal approval to allow early construction work to begin in 2026, and the letter this week reiterates that part of the timeline.
But while the delayed start of tolling will be a relief for drivers next year, it could potentially mean slightly higher initial rates when the tolls finally start up in 2027, according to a presentation slide deck for the commission meeting.
The two state transportation commissions previously approved a set of four tolling “scenarios” to advance to the Level 3 study, looking at different options for details like how much the tolls should be at the start, how much they should increase each year and how much they should increase when traffic shifts to the new bridge.
None of the final rates have been set — and now, that won’t happen until 2026 — but the scenarios included placeholder tolls that ranged from $1.55 to $4.70 per crossing at the start, depending on the time of day and the scenario chosen.
The slide deck for the commission meeting states that if the project delays tolling by a year but sticks with those placeholder rates for the initial tolls, the result will be a roughly 2% drop in gross revenue. To close the gap, the slide deck outlines a possible alternative approach that would hike the starting toll rates by 5 cents, for a new range of $1.60 to $4.75.
KGW reached out to the Interstate Bridge Replacement project team for comment and received the following statement:
The final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is anticipated to be published by the end of 2025, followed by an amended Record of Decision (ROD) in early 2026. The ROD will allow the Program to move into construction, with corridor construction beginning in 2026. With the updated environmental timeline provided by our federal partners, pre-completion tolling is anticipated to begin in 2027, allowing time to hire a contractor, install tolling equipment, and conduct the public rate-setting process. Additional detail will be covered during the OTC presentation tomorrow.
