Lawmakers Get a Look at Region’s Traffic Woes
Original article
Blaine’s Pacific Highway border crossing was the first stop Thursday on a congressional tour of Western Washington’s transportation infrastructure by the chairman of a House transportation subcommittee responsible for rewriting a six-year federal transportation funding bill.
Rep. Tom Petri’s panel is drafting a $375 billion proposal that would increase federal highway and transit funding in all 50 states. Petri’s proposal would bring $4.75 billion to Washington state over the next six years – an increase of $1.7 billion over current funding levels.
“I wanted to tour the Puget Sound area to get a firsthand look at the needs of your region,” said Petri, a Wisconsin Republican who is traveling the country reviewing major transportation infrastructure needs.
Rep. Rick Larsen, a Lake Stevens Democrat who represents the 2nd Congressional District that includes Bellingham, is also a member of Petri’s committee. He was Petri’s tour guide.
“This is the north-south pipeline for commercial traffic on the West Coast,” Larsen said over the din of air brakes and idling engines coming from a long line of big rigs and delivery trucks backed up at the U.S. side of the border.
The single-lane Blaine truck crossing is the fourth busiest U.S.-Canada border crossing in the nation and the largest truck crossing west of Detroit. Larsen wants federal funding for a multi-lane crossing that would include dedicated passenger vehicle lanes and an express lane for commercial truck traffic. He said the project is ready to go.
“We’re done planning. We need construction money,” Larsen said.
Next on the tour was the Bellingham Cruise Terminal where Petri and Larsen met with state and local officials and representatives of business and labor.
“The border has been a thorn in my side – and every trucker who crosses – it for years,” said Lloyd Ludtke, owner of Ludtke-Pacific Trucking Inc. who was representing Washington Trucking Association.
“We need the fast lane,” he said. “We need the infrastructure on the south side of the border.”
Ludtke said his drivers complain about two- and three-hour waits at the border.
Many needs
Funding border crossing improvements is also high on the list for Jim Miller, director of the Whatcom Council of Governments. But he also wants money to ease traffic on the Guide Meridian.
“I think it’s the bane of almost anyone who lives in Whatcom County,” Miller said. “It’s a mess, and that is mainly due to truck traffic.”
Miller told Petri that only 17 percent of the money earmarked for borders and corridors in the current six-year federal transportation bill went to border projects. He asked for more money and a more equitable distribution of funds in that category.
Bruce Agnew, director of the Cascadia Project at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, would like to see more money for rail transportation, better transportation links between cities and airports and better inter-city transit service.
“We’ve managed to at least maintain and preserve what we have, but we have many needs as well,” Larsen said.
Federal, state and local investment in transportation infrastructure has not kept pace with growth in Washington state, or anywhere in the United States, and transportation analysts say the nation’s congested streets and highways are deteriorating.
“We are not yet holding our own, let alone making headway,” Petri said.
Congress has an obligation to deal with the country’s growing transportation problems, he added.
Move ahead
President Bush’s transportation funding proposal would continue a flat level of transportation infrastructure investment.
Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson says that is not good enough.
“We have been using up the investment our grandparents made in transportation, and it’s our turn,” he said.
Asmundson said Whatcom County is a microcosm of regional and national transportation issues.
“We are located atop Interstate 5, the most significant NAFTA corridor on the West Coast,” he said. “A city of 70,000 and a county of 160,000, we represent communities all along the corridor from here to San Diego who feel impacts from inefficient and outdated transportation and freight movement facilities far, far beyond their capacity to remedy.”
More federal transportation money would also create new jobs, Asmundson said.
“Investing in transportation is investing in jobs,” said Larsen, who estimates that every $1 billion in transportation spending equals 47,000 jobs in construction and service industries. “That’s a sound investment for the people of Puget Sound.”
Doug MacDonald, secretary of the state Department of Transportation, lauded state legislators for passing a 5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase to pay for transportation improvements. That took courage after voter rejection of Referendum 51 in November, he said. Referendum 51 called for a 9-cent-per-gallon tax increase and other user fee increases.
But MacDonald said the public seems to have accepted the increase because it comes with a requirement for the Department of Transportation to keep the public informed on the status of projects.
“Our legislators know we simply can’t stand still,” he said. “We have to move ahead.”
Reach Sharon Michael at smichael@bellinghamherald.com or call 360-756-2805.