Citizen comment submitted by Sharon Nasset on January 10, 2026 to the Commander US Coast Guard District Northwest regarding the Columbia River Crossing bridge height issues if a new bridge is constructed.

I would like to thank the US Coast Guard for your effort to provide a thorough permitting process. The Columbia River as you are aware has extremely diverse amount marine vessels using the waterways. The Columbia and the Mississippi Rivers are the only two rivers to go into the interior of the United States. The Columbia River has several working ports along the Oregon and Washington sides of the river with plans for extensive future growth.

I am asking that you continue to focus on keeping bridges from being an obstruction to current and future marine traffic on the Columbia River. In the past and currently we have had to use the entire height of the lift for larger vessels, historical sailing ships, recreational boats, Army Corps Engineers, drudging, large windmill parts, and other commercial products. It is vital that we keep our options open and our bridges able to continue to handle the current and future marine time needs while adding new infrastructure.

[Read more…] about Now Is Not The Time To Lessen Our Current And Future Opportunities On the Mighty Columbia River