Third Bridge Open House Thursday

You've probably followed the saga of Courthouse Square. Right now it needs a 25 million dollar solution.

But there's another project in town that proponents say needs a 200 - 700 million dollar solution. And many people haven't heard much about it at all - at least the specifics this time around.

The second and final Open House and Public Hearing for the Salem River Crossing is Thursday from 3pm - 7pm. It's really important that Salemites be informed on such a large project and gigantic budget.

The Open House will be at the Chemeketa Center of Business and Industry on Union and High. They will have large posters with visualizations, graphs, charts, and other information about the project as part of the draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Most of the proposed alignments use large viaducts in Wallace Marine Park, along the south side of Edgewater, and in the Highland neighborhood.

Whether you think this is a project Salem desperately needs or is an unwise vision of overbuilding out of step with the likely future in 2050, surely we all agree that any project with a cost of nearly a billion dollars, funded with taxes and tolls, deserves the highest level of public scrutiny.