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​In May 2021, Governor Jay Inslee and U.S. Senator Patty Murray announced a joint federal-state process to determine whether there are reasonable means for replacing the services and benefits provided by the Lower Snake River Dams (LSRD) sufficient to support dam breaching as part of a comprehensive salmon  recovery strategy for the Snake River and the Pacific Northwest. Freight and goods transport by barge is one of the services that would be disrupted by dam removal.

In his proposed 2023-25 biennial transportation budget Governor Inslee directed the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to oversee an analysis of replacing the transportation services provided by the LSRD. The Legislature approved and funded that proposal and also directed the Joint Transportation Committee to hire an Independent Review Team to concurrently review the WSDOT LSRD transportation analysis and engage a stakeholder work group to inform the review. WSDOT has contracted with Jacobs Engineering to conduct the LSRD transportation analysis. The JTC has contracted with the Washington State University Freight Policy Transportation Institute.

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