Ha, you're too funny! In the early-mid-90's I worked in Engineering Services for Tri-Met - my first assigned project was the "north" light rail extension from what is now the Rose Quarter - we had matching funds from OR and Fed, but WA and Clark County soundly rejected any extension of the LRT into Clark County, with some of the proposals including addition traffic lanes. The north line was built, but only to the terminus at the Expo Center - multiple attempts to reach out to WA were rebuffed! We'd have been done a decade ago, and the Fed dollars were available at the time.
Furthermore, the Port of Vancouver has had plans on the table to put in a mixed-use facility on their property right where the Red Lion at the Quay is, plus the surrounding area. Just a few days ago, Red Lion put out a PR that October 31 will be the Quay's last day of business. There's nowhere to go to expand the I-5 Bridge on either side now on the WA side. That's what downtown Vancouver needs more of - empty retail space that hasn't been rented in a decade, more room for the multiple pawn shops and seedy bars - it's pretty much been that way since the late '70s...
WSDOT took out their HOV lane some time ago and hasn't addressed the nasty entrance to Hwy 14 that causes that back up every frickin' day. But why we don't have a flex lane approaching that old Bridge each day is beyond me.
Yes, there's a few alignments that would work but none of them are cheap.
Frankly, what I'd like to see is Google Fiber come in to complement what Century Link is doing - putting in gig fiber. Then, instead of blowing $5B on a bridge that will take 15 years to design and build (I grew up a mile away from the I-205 alignment, and the Glenn Jackson Bridge took forever to build), use the funds to house people and create multiple work centers backed by fiber and relocate some of the work staff and get them out of their cars. I'd rather hang out with friends then be stuck in this traffic. This, coming from a guy whose building/projects were in LaGrande, Antelope, Ashland, Astoria, Seattle, Skamokawa, plus local sites - those commutes were a drag! Cheers!
Never thought about using fiber to create more workspaces. That would definitely change a ton, and hopefully reduce commuting both ways. Good thinking.