The Columbia River Crossing’s Independent Review Panel faced harsh testimony Wednesday night at the Expo Center in North Portland from residents, environmental groups, and anti-toll critics.

A few voices expressed support of the $3.6 billion mega-project, but the panel, made up of freeway and bridge engineers from around the country, faced overwhelming discontent with the project from the small crowd of die-hard citizens in attendence.

“Welcome to Oregon,” Ron Buel said to Chairman Thomas Warne and the rest of the panel in perhaps the evenings most biting testimony. “Now please take your rubber stamps and go home!”

Buel’s testimony echoed that of Stop the CRC Coalition member David Osborn, who also labeled the experts as a “rubber stamp panel” while protesting the first meeting of the IRP earlier that day. But Osborn also accused the panel of deliberately keeping a low profile on the public’s opportunity to provide testimony.

“No one in this region knows this meeting is happening,” he testified, pointing out the meeting was announced only 48 hours prior. “How is that increasing public engagement?”

Margaret “Peg” Johnson, president of Jantzen Beach Moorage, Inc., defended the public outreach of the project and urged the planners to continue their work. “We welcome any alternatives that lessen any impact on Hayden Island, but we’ve got to move forward.”

Johnson added that the current air quality from the existing clogged freeway is causing some of the worst in the city to linger in North Portland. She reasons a larger bridge would prevent cars from idling and keep them moving.

Ron Swaren, a regular contributor to the Portland Transport blog, proposed a separate crossing on the West Side be built to relieve pressure on the I-5 corridor. He added that he is against the CRC because it is simply bad planning. “If the entire project weren’t controversial, you [the panel] wouldn’t be here.”

Paul Edgar, who identified himself as a former senior analyst in a think tank, also agreed the design is the result of bad planning. “If we build this CRC bridge we will induce more traffic,” he said. “We will kill more people.”

Chairman Thomas Warne ended the meeting with a few comments of his own, apologizing for his poor job of announcing the meeting, while defending the scope of the panel and insisting they have not convened to rubber stamp the bridge designs.

“I don’t think this panel feels it’s constrained,” he said. “You’ll have to be the judge on July 30 [when the panel reports back to the Oregon and Washington governors] whether or not we are a rubber stamp.”

For more info on upcoming meetings, please visit columbiarivercrossing.org and crcreview.org.