Ask a buyer why they want a house on Vancouver's east side and you'll hear about quick weekend runs to Camas and a shorter drive to Portland's east side. Ask a buyer why they want a condo near the waterfront and you'll hear about walkability and the promise of light rail finally reaching Washington. Neither answer mentions the mechanism that's actually starting to separate these two markets: which Columbia River bridge a household ends up crossing every day, and whether that bridge is about to start charging for the privilege.
One crossing is now under construction and building the infrastructure to collect tolls before it's even finished. The other has no active toll program attached to it, and hasn't since Oregon killed the relevant piece of its regional tolling plan back in 2024. That split, more than finish level or proximity to downtown, is what's quietly showing up in how two parts of the same city get priced.
The Interstate Bridge Is Under Construction, and the Toll Comes With It
The Interstate Bridge Replacement program cleared its last major federal hurdle on July 1, 2026, when the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration jointly issued an amended Record of Decision, closing out environmental review and clearing the way for construction. The program has since issued a request for qualifications for the roughly $3.9 billion first phase of the Columbia River Bridge Replacement contract, the piece that actually rebuilds the I-5 crossing.
Tolling isn't an afterthought here. It's load-bearing. The program's own contract resources page lists a 2026 construction contract, budgeted at $20 million to $24 million, to install static and variable rate tolling signage and gantries on I-5 in both Oregon and Washington. The stated purpose is to support "pre-completion toll collection," meaning the cameras could start billing drivers before the new bridge is anywhere near open.
How much that will cost per crossing is still being worked out, but the range is narrowing. According to a September 2025 legislative committee briefing reported by the Camas Post-Record, Washington and Oregon officials were weighing four tolling scenarios ranging from $1.55 to $4.70 per crossing, with exemptions under discussion for certain groups. Whatever number the two states' transportation commissions land on, it applies to the more than 140,000 vehicles that currently cross this century-old bridge every day.
The Other Bridge Just Isn't in That Plan
Vancouver has a second Columbia River crossing, the I-205 Glenn Jackson Bridge, and it was on the same tolling track as the Interstate Bridge for years. Oregon's Regional Mobility Pricing Project was designed to add a per-mile toll on I-5 and I-205 starting at the Washington border and running south through the Portland area. In 2024, Governor Tina Kotek killed that per-mile tolling plan for both freeways, while explicitly leaving the Interstate Bridge Replacement's own bridge toll in place. The distinction has held since. The Glenn Jackson Bridge carries no active toll program today, while its sister crossing four miles west is actively installing the equipment to charge for the trip.
That difference lands differently depending on which side of Vancouver you're shopping in. Neighborhoods that lean on I-205 for a Portland commute, including Cascade Park and the Fisher's Landing area, sit on the side of the river crossing that isn't part of any current toll plan. Neighborhoods that lean on I-5, including downtown, the waterfront district, and north-side areas like Felida, Salmon Creek, and Hazel Dell, sit on the side that's now under construction with a toll built into the plan.
| Interstate Bridge (I-5) | Glenn Jackson Bridge (I-205) | |
|---|---|---|
| Current status | First funded phase in construction procurement; RFQ issued for $3.9B contract | No active per-mile tolling plan since the 2024 RMPP repeal |
| Toll infrastructure | Gantries and signage being installed in 2026 for pre-completion collection | None planned near-term |
| Estimated toll range | $1.55 to $4.70 per crossing, per a September 2025 legislative briefing | N/A |
| Nearby Vancouver areas | Downtown, Waterfront, Uptown Village, Felida, Salmon Creek, Hazel Dell | Cascade Park, Fisher's Landing, Fisher's Landing East |
The Light Rail Card Isn't as Strong as It Looks
The obvious counterargument for a downtown or waterfront buyer is that you don't need to drive across a tolled bridge if you can ride light rail instead. That was the original plan. The 2022 preferred alternative called for extending TriMet's MAX line from Portland's Expo Center all the way to a station on Evergreen Boulevard, at a spot known locally as Library Square, near the Vancouver Community Library.
Then the budget caught up with the project. When cost estimates jumped to a range of $13.5 billion to $15.2 billion in March 2026, program leaders scaled the funded scope back to a single elevated Waterfront Station between Columbia Way and 3rd Street, sitting roughly 90 feet above the BNSF railroad tracks, with no adjacent parking, according to reporting from the Washington State Standard. Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said she was blindsided by the decision, learning about it just a day before the governor's public announcement.
C-Tran's board pushed back hard. In a 7-2 vote in May 2026, the board passed a resolution urging the program to stick with the original Library Square terminus, and Deputy CEO Scott Patterson told the board that a waterfront-only stop would likely connect only to C-Tran's Highway 99 bus rapid transit line, set to launch in 2027, rather than the broader regional bus network riders would need to actually replace a car trip. Extending the line the rest of the way to Evergreen could cost roughly another billion dollars, and no one has identified where that money comes from yet.
None of this means light rail is dead. It means the version that's actually funded today gets a rider to an elevated platform near the freight tracks, not to a stop that connects cleanly to the rest of the city. A buyer paying a premium for "walk to the train, skip the toll" is buying a promise that currently stops one stage short of being useful for a daily commute.
What the Price Data Already Shows
Some of this is already priced in. Downtown Vancouver's median sale price ran around $565,000 over the three months ending in July 2026, up 3.5 percent from the same period a year earlier, a pace that outstripped the city as a whole. Vancouver's citywide median, by comparison, sat near $494,000 as of August 2026. Downtown is carrying a real premium relative to the rest of the market, and the waterfront redevelopment story, restaurants, trails, and a light rail line on the way, is a reasonable part of why.
On the east side, the Fisher's Landing East pocket has been commanding prices in the $600,000s to around $700,000, a level driven in large part by the same I-205 corridor access that currently carries no toll plan. Two premiums, two very different foundations. Downtown's price is leaning on infrastructure that's underfunded past its first stub. Fisher's Landing East's price is leaning on a tolling decision that's already been made.
Neither premium is a mistake. But they're not the same kind of bet, and a buyer deciding between the two should know which one they're actually making.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Pick a Side of Town
- Which bridge does your household actually cross for work, school runs, or regular errands, and would any of those trips fall inside a peak-hour toll window once collection starts?
- If part of your decision rests on light rail replacing a car trip, does the funded station get you where you need to go, or does it only get you to an elevated platform with no parking and an unfunded connection to the rest of the system?
- Is the price you're being asked to pay for a neighborhood reflecting infrastructure that exists on the ground today, or infrastructure that's still waiting on its next round of funding?
Will I-205 stay untolled for good? Oregon killed the Regional Mobility Pricing Project's per-mile tolling plan for I-5 and I-205 in 2024, and that decision has held since. It isn't a permanent guarantee, transportation funding conversations continue, but no toll program is currently attached to the Glenn Jackson Bridge crossing.
When will I-5 tolling actually start? Toll infrastructure, including gantries and signage, is being installed in 2026 to support what the program calls pre-completion toll collection. That means tolls could begin before the new bridge itself opens. The exact start date is still being finalized by the Oregon and Washington transportation commissions.
Does the funded light rail extension reach downtown Vancouver's core? The current funded phase stops at an elevated Waterfront Station near Columbia Way and 3rd Street. The extension to Library Square, the stop that would actually connect to C-Tran's bus network, remains unfunded and without a firm timeline.
The Takeaway for Buyers Comparing Sides of Town
City-level medians flatten out exactly the kind of difference that matters here. A downtown condo and a Cascade Park house can sit a few miles apart and be pricing in two entirely different futures, one built on a toll decision that's already been made, the other on a construction contract for an elevated platform with no parking lot yet. Understanding which bet you're making, not just which zip code looks nicer on a map, is the kind of neighborhood-level read that a citywide report can't give you.
That's the level of detail Louise James works at every day across Camas, Washougal, and Vancouver, matching a household's actual commute and budget against what's really funded and what's still a promise. If you're weighing which side of the river's bridges makes sense for your next move, get a free home valuation and start the conversation with someone who tracks this market block by block.
