Hayden Island community pushes to be heard as I-5 bridge replacement heads toward reality

Inside the 909 Café on Hayden Island, a group of residents gathered around a table with a large map draped across the top on a recent Sunday. They sat, critiquing the interchanges, and on-ramps and off-ramps of this proposed design for the Interstate Bridge Replacement.

Pam Ferguson and Tom Dana live on the island. They were both worried about the plan.

“We just need them to listen to our concerns and try to address them,” Ferguson said.

“Really listen! They fake it,” Dana echoed. “They have a meeting and they say now they’re listening to everybody, and they don’t.”

Hayden Island is a strip of land in the Columbia River that drivers pass above when crossing between Washington and Oregon. It’s home to about 3,000 residents.

The massive infrastructure project to replace the Interstate Bridge has been in the works for decades. It will replace the current bridge, which is vulnerable to earthquakes and is the site of heavy congestion during commute hours. Construction on the project is expected to start in early 2026.

The replacement of the Interstate Bridge between Portland and Vancouver will affect many people, but few more than residents of Hayden Island. With public comment on the drafted plans closing Monday and construction moving from a far-off worry to an incoming reality, concerned residents of the island have been making a final push to see the project altered or stopped altogether.

“We’re already feeling the impact of people not wanting to sink a lot of money into their businesses and people not wanting to sink a lot of money into their homes,” resident Deborah Heckhausen said. She worries about the dust and noise during what is expected to be a years-long construction project.

None of the residents at the 909 Café have homes at risk of being demolished, though the plan identifies as many as 76 residences that could be displaced along the project’s span from Portland to Vancouver. Still, Ferguson said people on Hayden Island are already feeling ripple effects.

“It’s getting harder and harder to sell our homes because the property values are going down, and with the construction, it’s just going to be worse,” she said.

Ferguson has been pushing for residents to weigh in on the proposed plan during the 60-day public comment period.

The bridge planners are familiar with the Hayden Island community’s concerns.

“I recognize they’re in the eye of the storm,” said Greg Johnson, the program administrator who is leading the project on behalf of Washington and Oregon. “They sit right in the middle of this project. But we have been, I think, extremely responsive to them. Whenever they want us, we’ll come out.”

The project’s organizers have met with Hayden Island residents 19 times over the past four and a half years, according to Johnson. And he said there are plans to mitigate problems like noise, dust and vibrations during construction.

As the bridge replacement finally gets closer to reality, planners are balancing Hayden Island residents’ concerns with the need to modernize a transportation route critical to the Pacific Northwest’s economies.

An estimated $132 million worth of freight is shipped across the I-5 bridge each day, according to the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program. They estimate the entire project will cost around $6 billion, though upper limits of current estimates could put the project as high as $7.5 billion.

“We have to look out for the local interest, but we also have to look at the bigger picture of what’s happening regionally and nationally with this corridor,” Johnson said.

One of the thorniest issues being debated now is tolls. In October, transportation planners with Oregon and Washington released several scenarios for how much tolls could cost drivers. The rates range from $1.55 to $4.70 per one-way trip across the bridge.

Tolls would create an extra imposition for Hayden Island residents who use the bridge to travel to and from home. Some residents think they should be exempt from tolls.

“Otherwise, it’s just a ridiculous tax on the residents that live here, and again, it’s a discouragement against people moving here, putting their businesses here,” said Daniel DeHaan, who lives in a houseboat.

The island is an easy hop from Washington State and is the location of a handful of big box stores. Tolls could deter the tax-free shopping in Oregon, residents worry, and could make it harder for businesses to attract retail and service industry employees making lower wages.

But as a way to pay for bridge costs and upkeep, tolling creates fairness, Johnson said.

“If you use it, you help pay for it,” he said. “If you don’t use it, you don’t.”

The current plan also includes a parallel, toll-free bridge that will connect Hayden Island to North Portland. That was added to the plan based on concerns from people on the island.

The Hayden Island residents who gathered to critique the bridge are proud of their small community, separate from Portland and any perceived city problems. But, at the same time, they described being overlooked for city services like police. For some, the bridge replacement is another example of being left out.

“What we would really like it see is an embracing of our community and lifting us up, rather than telling us we’re just going to have to suck it up and sacrifice,” DeHaan said.

Johnson has a similar personal story. When he was 4 years old in Michigan, the department of transportation was doing a highway project north of Detroit. His parents’ house was in the way.

“This was in the era where they pretty much came and said, ‘We need your property. So, get ready to get out.’ And my father felt that he was treated unfairly,” Johnson said.

He thinks of his father when he’s on the job as a transportation planner today.

“I take that story and it informs me of how to treat people, how to interact with folks who are going to be going through some major life changes based on what we do,” he said.

Many details of the Interstate Bridge Replacement, including tolls and construction mitigation, are still being worked out. For residents who want to shape the future design, their best bet is to weigh in on the plan.