Civic Leadership Group Calls for Prioritizing Viaduct and Evergreen Point Bridge
Contact: Bruce Agnew or Dave Earling, Cascadia Center
(206) 292-0401 (ext.113 or 144)
(206) 228-4011 or (206) 920-5593 cell phone
Civic Leadership Group Calls for Prioritizing Viaduct and Evergreen Point Bridge
Endorses $8 Billion/10 Year State Revenue Package & Comparable Regional Package
The Transportation Working Group (TWG), an assemblage of civic leaders drawn from King, Pierce and Snohomish counties and staffed by the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute on Monday evening adopted a series of findings and recommendations on the region’s long term transportation needs. Chief among those is a request to the 2005 Legislature to make replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Evergreen Point Bridge the state’s number one priority for state funds. The TWG, responding to a request by House Transportation Committee chair Ed Murray also committed to accelerate its search for a new regional governance scheme to streamline and consolidate transportation planning and finance in time for the 2005 legislative session.
The TWG recommended approximately $8 billion in new transportation spending statewide over the next ten years. Revenue would come from a variety of sources including an increase in the gas tax of ten cents phased in over two years. The group emphasized that gaining greater efficiency and coordination in transportation projects and winning greater public confidence in the transportation future requires restructuring of key government processes and stronger accountability.
The civic leaders lauded the progress made under the nickel gas tax package authorized by the Legislature in 2003. However given the multi-billion dollar backlog in transportation system improvements they were compelled to call for more investment. “There are a myriad of needs across this state,” said Transportation Working Group Chairman Doug Beighle, “and while the Puget Sound region is prepared to step up and tax itself for a substantial share of our projects, the Legislature must find money for needs in every city and county across this state.” The group went on to endorse the introduction of user fees, such as tolling on a new Evergreen Point Bridge and HOT lanes on SR-167, and innovative financing tools to address the state’s shortfall in transportation infrastructure.
The TWG adopted a series of principles to guide a new regional governance scheme for transportation, including the finding that long-term solutions in every major corridor of the Puget Sound region must be multi-modal and consistent with economic, land-use and environmental objectives. Said Chairman Beighle, “We believe it is important to declare the modal wars dead. It does not serve us to continue the fallacy that roads come at the expense of transit or vice versa. We believe this region needs one integrated plan using all modes of transportation if we are to thrive.”
Members of the TWG last night committed to continue their dialogue on regional transportation planning and funding governance and expand it to include local and state elected officials. Heeding a warning that failure to reorganize regional governance would jeopardize the ability to win new revenue from the Legislature, the group elected to accelerate its efforts to find consensus on a consolidated transportation governance scheme. A recommendation during the 2005 session is anticipated.
The state should improve capacity on I-405, SR-167 and I-5 through Seattle before tackling the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Evergreen Floating Bridge, according to the group. With substantial displacement of vehicle trips anticipated during each project’s six to ten year construction, the TWG recommended full funding for mitigation programs that include transit, ride-sharing and highway improvements on parallel corridors. “The state knows where the bottlenecks are,” said Phil Bussey, the co-chairman of the TWG committee charged with drafting recommendations to the 2005 Legislature. “By extending the work started under the nickel package on I-405 and re-aligning I-5 lanes through downtown Seattle, we can realize some gains that will ease the crunch during construction.”
The TWG was convened by the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute, and was charged with examining the long range transportation needs of the Puget Sound Region against Destination 2030, the region’s long range plan. With over thirty members drawn from business, labor and environmental leaders of the three county region, the TWG is chaired by Doug Beighle, former senior vice president of The Boeing Company and the former chair of Governor Locke’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation.
The TWG formed two committees to develop its recommendations. The TWG Long Range Committee, chaired by Reid Shockey and Richard Ford, was charged with examining current funding and planning for transportation throughout the Puget Sound region and recommending changes to better address the chronic shortfall in transportation investment. The group’s Short Term Committee, chaired by Al Ralston and Phil Bussey, was charged with preparing requests to the 2005 Legislature.
The TWG, while a project of the Cascadia Center, relied heavily on information and analysis provided by the Washington Department of Transportation and the Puget Sound Regional Council. The group’s recommendations have been provided to legislative leaders and the Transportation Partnership, a lobbying effort of the corporate and labor community.