Bridge Authority Commissioners

I’m Eric Wilson and I'm an architect with over 30 years of experience. My specialty has been large institutional projects for colleges and universities, including at Washington State University, Oregon State University and UC Davis, among others.

The story that I’ve heard comes from my neighbor, who was telling me, “Whenever I go over the bridge, I unbuckle my seatbelt and roll down all the windows in my car.” He was that afraid of it, that he didn’t want to be strapped in. I said that hadn't really occurred to me, but that's an interesting idea. We are not at that point and getting the new bridge in place will prevent us from ever being in that position.

The bridge replacement is important for this community and the vital link that it provides across the Columbia River on multiple levels, not only for people's individual lives, but the businesses that are here and all of us that live here and love it here.

I understand that a bridge has never been built this way before by basically a group of citizens and small local governments that got together and created a government agency to design, build and operate a bridge. That's pretty compelling, to be involved in something like that.

Design and construction process is something I understand. I've been around it for years -- not necessarily bridge construction, but heavy construction. I know the terminology. I know what the discussions are, what the issues are. So, in that respect, I can bring a level of knowledge and experience to the process.