A new wrinkle in the Viaduct story:
If the viaduct is torn down and replaced with surface streets and transit, the state might contribute just over $1 billion for construction work, said Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island.
That’s less than half of what the state has pledged for replacing the viaduct with another elevated highway, and could leave the city on the hook for nearly $1 billion to complete a surface-street project, based on some projections.
Amazing. I have no idea where Sen. Haugen gets $1 billion for the ‘surface plus transit’ option as opposed to over $2 billion for the Mistake On The Bay. The money is there for ‘surface’, it’s just a matter of greedy suburban Democrats keeping their paws off Seattle’s infrastructure money appropriating it.
What a cynical, arrogant move by Olympia lawmakers. First they demand we vote on two options (one of which they say they won’t accept) and then they pull the purse strings in a show of power.
“Build what we want, or no money.”
Voters may well approve the Viaduct rebuild, but they may not. In fact, I hope Seattle citizens send a double barreled message to the Olympia by voting “No, and Hell No.”
One week of Iraq’s funding would build anything we could dream of to replace the aging viaduct……
Make sure we keep things in perspective…..
Remember, we still pay $180,000,000,000 a year in interest on the money Reagan borrowed to keep his insane trickle “UP” economic disaster afloat……
I wonder what that 2 TRILLION wasted in Iraq creating, instead of fighting terror could have done for infrastructure. I know, I know, I am counting the true cost of the war after taking care of the 100,000 injured vets (counting mental problems), and interest. Of course the 2 trillion is if we leave today….
I know it is just money. I am sure the GOP will find ways to squeeze it from the working poor, our vets, and retired Americans.
Bastards.
If you still support Bush you should be hung for treason.
How much does the state get in increased property tax when property values shoot up with an accessable waterfront and a view of the sound?
The more we spend on this project, the more wealthy political contributors make building it. It’s so simple, yet so complicated, when the rich and influential get used to having their mitts in your wallet for everything.
It’s the government AND the private sector that are in cahoots keeping us in economic slavery.
I am onboard witrh “No” and “No.”
But what happens after?
I suggest “Repair & Prepare.”
The “naked” Surface option will never get real & immediate political traction once people start thinking it through and realizing that the blithe hand-waving around replacing the Viaduct with “Transit” (much less an Aurora Avenue-on-the-Waterfront) is not quite so easy.
Will, you must understand that the State DOT is very limited in terms of what the gas tax money can be spent for and where it can be spent. This money can be spent for demo and despisal of the viaduct and for mitigation while this work takes place and for re-linking 99 south with 99 north but cannot spend the money to do work on other non-state hwy roads or for transit on those roads. In fact the money could only be spent on capitol projects and will likely be spent on only those capital projects that meet the states criteria from a fiduciary standpoint.
What is arrogant is expecting these state gas tax funds to be released to the city for its internal traffic problems especially when they are caused by demanding that a state hwy be reduced in size and scale.
@ 7
I fully understand the constraints placed on gas tax money. I also know that:
1) Clibborn or Haugen didn’t mention those constraints in the article ONCE, which leads me to believe they see the $1 billion maximum is a political decision rather than a decision based on the laws that govern how the gas tax is spent.
2) the WA-DOT is a roads-building, highway-loving organization, and I’m not surprised they see through an “auto capacity” frame instead of a “people capacity” frame. That may work for Highway 9 in Snohomish Co, or a N/S freeway in Spokane, but not in downtown Seattle.
“Internal traffic problems”? WTF does that mean? WA-DOT, with taxes collected from Seattle, fixes such “internal traffic problems” such as the Fremont Bridge, the University Bridge, and more. Like it or not, but the “internal traffic problems” of the state’s biggest city are the state’s concern too.
You know Will, I am fine with which option you want. After all you live there. I even like you. But you really are full of shit when you say “the WA-DOT is a roads-building, highway-loving organization” This is like saying that firefighters are pro fire. DOT does not set policy or decide what to raise taxes for. DOT has the task of managing the state road system and spending limited money on projects as directed.
And when you say:
“Internal traffic problems”? WTF does that mean? WA-DOT, with taxes collected from Seattle, fixes such “internal traffic problems” such as the Fremont Bridge, the University Bridge, and more. Like it or not, but the “internal traffic problems” of the state’s biggest city are the state’s concern too. ”
You are just wrong. The WSDOT is only involved in state roadways (hwy’s and fwy’s) and state ferries.
An important aspect of this story is the fact that the $1 billion the state will withhold is the money that would be necessary for corollary aspects of the viaduct replacement project such as replacing the Alaskan Way Seawall and relocating utilities. These are projects that need to take place regardless of which option is chosen. The state is basically holding these projects hostage, saying, “We’ll only pay for these necessary projects if you agree to our more expensive option which will permanently mar your city. If you want a cheaper, better option, then these fundamentally unchanged projects will suddenly be your responsibility.”
Sen. Haugen and Rep. Clibborn’s position makes no sense. Fortunately, the Seattle delegation has sufficient clout that I really doubt that these bullies from Camano and Mercer Islands will get their way. I doubt even Frank Chopp would go along with this.
The DOT has got into the rail business, and owns a few small airports for General Aviation(few if any have services). They also have jurisdiction over Washington State Ferries. Now on the rail side, they just aquired 300 miles of railroad Right of Way, the Palouse River and Coulee City in Eastern Washington, and it is being operated by the former owner. They also are paying part of the track and signal upgrades for Amtrak Cascades Passenger Service. Just 10 years ago, we had a short run to Portland, and three Long Distance Trains, one of them only Tri-Weekly, another Four Times a week, and one Daily. Now there are just two LD Trains(both daily), 4 Seattle-Portland Round Trips, and the two Trains tot he North. It was interesting to see how much a high-speed crossover costs. $5 million to allow for a train to switch tracks and avoid another. Those projects can probably be done pretty quickly too. Not every project for Amtrak Cascades is going to be that cheap. The Point Defiance Bypass will cost at least $200 million, but will shave 11 minutes from the running time, and take Passenger Trains away from the bottleneck on the Pt. Defiance Route. Now what the PDB is, is instead of pulling into that Amshack near the yard in the tideflats area of Tacoma, Amtrak Trains will divert at Reservation Junction, use Freighthouse Square as a station, then run on a new connecting track to the Lakeview Subdivision, which is now owned by Sound Transit, running through Lakewood, and Dupont, rejoining the main at Nisqually Junction.
@ 8
You said it’s arrogant to expect state gas tax funds to be used for “internal traffic problems.” I said those funds are used for that all the time. I don’t care if WA-DOT overseers it or not, it’s the doctrinaire, bureaucratic attitude from our public officials that pisses me off.
C’mon, WA-DOT builds highways. I’m just pointing that out. It’s their job, it’s what they do! They fix problems with highways. Dominoes delivers pizza, firefighters put out fires, WA-DOT builds freeways. They see problems and fix them with highways.
“Greedy suburban Democrats keeping their paws off Seattle’s infrastructure money”, Goldy? Are you concerned about the possibility that while Seattle is mired in the Viaduct quagmire, money might be reprogrammed to fix the 520 bridge? Are you going to claim that it is less critical to the region, or less deserving somehow as a project?
After the Loma Prieta quake in San Francisco/Oakland in 1989, a big pot of federal and state money was allocated to fix the roads that needed fixing. Oakland moved on getting their section of roads built while San Francisco dithered about what they were going to do. Oakland, consequently, used the vast majority of the allocated money.
Certain Seattle politicians would like to hold the 520 replacement hostage to the Viaduct questions. And honestly, if that’s their attitude, they are likely to see people on the Eastside telling them to stuff it to their transportation tax packages — which is not a good solution for anybody.
My solution: dirgibles with wingnuts as ballast.
The best thing that could happen would be the $2B of State gas tax proceeds getting reallocated from the viaduct to the SR 520 project. Add in some tolls, a per-capita tax on employers, and that project would be paid for.
Let Transit Now start working, and let light rail come on line. Let gas prices go up another couple of years. There will not be as many vehicles using that stretch of SR 99 as the current, aggressive projections indicate. Surface and transit will be feasible.
Pay for the SR 520 project as described above, and there’d be no need for RTID in the fall. That would be a good, good thing.
Clibborn just passed a bill out of her committee (HB 1396) that does not require RTID to disclose where it will direct the RTID revenue. LOTS of non-Seattle legislators (and local-yokel politicos) have their eyes on the RTID money. RTID is a terrible deal for Seattle – the taxes raised would be spent (in large part) on unwarranted road projects (cross-base highway, anyone?). It sucks from a cost/benefit perspective, and an environmental perspective.
Clibborn’s Lexus-driving Mercer Island neighbors love RTID. A big chunk of Seattle taxes would be used to build out I-405. They could keep on the gas all the way to Redmond and Renton every day. She learned at the knee of her M.I. neighbor, “Asphalt” Jim Horn.
Fred @ 12
Good points. Oddly enough, it’s the pro-rebuild folks who want to rush rush rush to rebuild the Viaduct. If Viaduct money is switched to pay for 520 (which would make the 520 rebuild all but 100% paid for), the state will HAVE to address the Viaduct at SOME time, at which point there may be a consensus.
In the meantime, we might have to tear the Viaduct down. So we’ll have the ‘surface plus transit’ option for a while anyway…
Will, I think what you are confusing is that state funds are often appropriated for city projects and bridges but these are not DOT projects or funds. The gas tax money earmarked for the viaduct is not available for non Hwy Fwy projects.
It is comforting…..no, make that amusing, to see how effective the LEFTIST PINHEADED KLOWNS are when completely in charge.
How much taxpayer time & money has been wasted on process???
That should include City, WSDOT & other consultants on these projects??
When will something actually be built??
Seattle is truly the Anal Canal of the Universe!
What a bunch of a$$holes!
You deserve each other.
Realist. Get Real.
Take a look at the RTID list. http://www.rtid.org. And see for yourself what is in there for Seattle.
Lot’s and lot’s of projects that help move Metro buses through the city (Spokane Street Viaduct, Lander Street Overpass, Industrial Way HOV off ramp) and improvements to city streets to make them more pedestrian friendly. These are projects the city itself has promoted. Oh, and there is $1.1 billion for the HOV lanes on the new 520 bridge so our buses won’t be sitting behind stalled vehicles anymore.
Get real dude.
Will, I guess by “greedy suburban Democrats,” you mean the ones that voted to increase their constituents’ gas tax (twice) and send a majority of it into the City of Seattle and wait in line for improvements to their priority transportation projects, like completing the gaps in the HOV lanes on 167?
Sure thing.
@ 16
“The gas tax money earmarked for the viaduct is not available for non Hwy Fwy projects.”
That’s the sort of bureaucratic baloney that makes people hate WA state government. That makes no logical sense. Seattle residents PAID those gas taxes; they ought to get them for their roads.
@ 19
You’re right, Steve. I’ve fixed it to better make my point.
Facts Support My Positions says:
Bastards.
If you still support Bush you should be hung for treason.
When you start executing 80% of the military let me know. I want to see that. heheheehehee
It’s the government AND the private sector that are in cahoots keeping us in economic slavery.
Well you got the government half of it right. Proof positive that a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Steve:
When you add up those projects in Seattle, plus one-half of the $1.1 Bln that would go to the SR 520 project, the sum is two-thirds of the taxes RTID will raise from Seattle. The rest of the Seattle tax money is going to go to pay for sprawl-spawning roads on the eastside and highways in Pierce County. And another thing Steve, EXACTLY what taxes should be imposed to make up the (at minimum) $2.7 BLN. funding shortfall for the SR 520 project, assuming your RTID PASSES? And one more thing, dude, what do you think of that new bill that would allow RTID to raise both its taxes throughtout the region and AFTER the vote to pay to complete the six projects in Pierce County? Think that one should become law?
re 23: You are not part of the “private sector”. You have the clout of a loofa sponge.
YAY! THE BIAW KLOWN, TOM MCCABE’S BUTT-BOY MR. CYNICAL IS BACK.
BE PREPARED FELLOW LIBERALS. LET’S PUT THIS COMPLETE AND UTTER LOSER IN HIS PLACE.
HIS RECORD IS COMPLETE FAILURE: ELECTION CONTEST, I-912, DAVID IRONS JR, MARK FOLEY, TED HAGGARD AND FINALLY NOV 7 2006.
GOT TWO WORDS FOR YOU BOZO: SPEAKER PELOSI.
FOUR MORE: GOVERNOR GREGOIRE IN 2008!
@11 I remember going to a public hearing on charging parking fees for Park-n-Ride lots. Can you imagine that? Our tax dollars paid for those lots, and they wanted to charge us to park there! WSDOT bureaucrats were fucking arrogant assholes. I say “were” because WSDOT downsized and a lot ofthem are gone now. Good riddance.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, they shceduled the “public hearing” at 4 p.m. on a Monday to make sure working stiffs couldn’t attend. I was the only citizen there. Everybody else was a bureaucrat, contractor rep, or city official of some sort. Well, you can imagine what that hearing was like when the only person who signed up for public testimony was Roger Rabbit.
That was the last time anyone ever heard of their dingbat scheme to charge parking fees at Park-n-Ride lots. Never fuck with a rabbit!
@23 Only when CHEAP LABOR CONSERVATIVES are running it. Government is liberating when we liberals run it.
@17 “How much taxpayer time & money has been wasted on process???”
None. I repeat, none. Although our city and state governments spend a great deal of time and money on interacting with the citizens who pay taxes and use government services (what you call “process”), none of it is wasted because government is SUPPOSED to consider what the people want.
Too bad the arrogant pricks running our federal government don’t understand this simple principle.
Hey Cynical, where ya been? You’ve been gone so long I was sure Mrs. Cynical had murdered you, cut you up in the bathtub with a chainsaw, and fed you to the sand sharks!
I bought another 100 shares of NOV last month at 55, and it’s already up over $1000. Went up $5.65 in one day! Because their earnings doubled. You oughta buy some of that stock if you haven’t already, cuz when Bush attacks Iran and oil goes to $200 a barrel, it’ll shoot up!
But what I want to know is, how does your washing machine work? I want to know how it changes L & I taxes into Rossi slush funds. What’s inside the rollers that works this magic?
The rest of the Seattle tax money is going to go to pay for sprawl-spawning roads on the eastside and highways in Pierce County.
Wait just one minute. I’m as opposed to sprawl as anybody else, but here’s what I don’t get. One of the tenets of growth management is that you direct growth into certain areas, and then once growth happens, you expand the capacity of roads and transit in just those areas, rather than all over the place, so you save money.
Most of the eastside is within the urban area. Expanding roads there is exactly what we should be doing, because we’re directing growth there. 405 is an urban freeway. It’s entirely within the urban growth boundary. We’ve allowed urban growth to happen on the eastside. Under growth management, expanding 405 is exactly what’s supposed to happen, so we don’t have to build a 605 further out.
If you’re going to complain about “sprawl-spawning” roads, fine. 405 isn’t one of them. The growth has already happened. Now we need to upgrade the infrastructure to help deal with it.
Bax, building and widening roads means those roads will be filled with more cars. It is the invariable paradox of increasing road capacity: it will be filled. Widening the highways on the eastside within the urban corridors WILL result in loss of open space, detriments to the watershed and air quality, and far more sov use, especially OUTSIDE the urban boundary. Build those roads in E. King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, and you are enabling the i.c.e.-addicted for the next two generations. And you will destroy the Cascade foothills to do it.
Hey Rog–
I’ve been traveling, enjoying life & watching my stock portfolio skyrocket. Glad to see you are not stupid like the real KLOWNS who jealously scream about oil….sitting on the sidelines….not making money.
I have to disagree with you Rog about the cost of all this endless Seattle Transportation Process nonsense. The outside consultants are making a killing. And sooooo much staff time is being chewed up….which begs the question “Why do we have so many bureaucrats”???? If they have time for all this nonsensical process, perhaps we don’t really need most of them.
My vote is to turn ALL of these ineffective bureaucrats into PAVEMENT!!
Tacoma has done amazing things.
Bremerton is also “gittin’ ‘r done” under the leadership of Cary Bozeman.
Seattle is a prime example of the failure of “consensus government”. By the time everyone is “heard” and there “feelings” acknowledged….ALL THE DAMN MONEY IS GONE!
Seattle’s KLOWNS mistake “motion” for “action”!! The Seattle meeting mentality is a plague. But it is amusing to watch.
Aren’t you just a wee bit disgusted with these a$$holes Rog??
When Seattle’s voters reject Olympia’s big ugly freeway and a more practical alternative is developed, the money will flow from Olympia to fix the state highway. No doubt about it.
All Senator Haugen is promoting is a protracted “do nothing” fight. And she’ll lose. But she and Rep. Clibborn get points at home for sticking it to Seattle – sheesh.
When surface solutions are more fully developed the state DOT will like them a whole lot more than they do now. The highway engineers just aren’t quite ready yet to give up on their simple capacity dream and they don’t get the politics yet.
There will be a little money left on the table, roughly $300-$400 million or so, and that will help a lot on the 520.
By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 18, 2007; Page A01
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.
They suffer from brain injuries, severed arms and legs, organ and back damage, and various degrees of post-traumatic stress. Their legions have grown so exponentially — they outnumber hospital patients at Walter Reed 17 to 1 — that they take up every available bed on post and spill into dozens of nearby hotels and apartments leased by the Army. The average stay is 10 months, but some have been stuck there for as long as two years.
THIS IS WHAT THE BRAINDEAD WINGNUTS (LIKE MR. CYNICAL AND PUDDYBUD) WANT MORE OF. THEY WANT TO STIR UP TROUBLE IN THE WORLD TO BOOST THEIR STOCK PORTFOLIOS.
TRAITORS, ALL OF YOU.
Who has read a definitive perspective on how the surface + transit option can lead to the sort of development (ie New Urbanism) espoused by adherents who admit that over-dependence upon automobiles and the long-distance transport via globalization is in every way unsustainable?
The planning philosophy which supports maintaining the traffic capacity of SR-99 stubbornly refuses to admit its fatal flaw – that economies which require long-distance travel and transport never stop growing. All the most degrading aspects of our modern industrial economy are spiraling out of control, reaking havoc, while its planners answer only to those who profit profligately from its ruinious inequities.
24. I guess your definition of sprawl is any development that takes place outside the city limits of Seattle.
All those big tall buildings going up in Bellevue…sprawl to you. Urban center development in Kent and Renton…sprawl. Condos going up on Auburn’s mainstreet…sprawl.
Man you need to get out and about this great region more often.
Let me guess, you have embraced density and live on a 12,000 sq foot lot in Laurelhurst right?
One week in Iraq’s funding, and this problem, and many others solved…..
All the comments above, and no one even mentions trying to find ways to MAKE people drive less, and create less carbon.
Being American means “build the roads, burn the gas, build more roads, and burn more gas, build more, burn more, build, burn, build, burn…..”
Who needs ice caps anyway right? Screw the polar bears, and to hell with all those reefs. Them fish will have to hide somewhere else!
Technology will save us right?
I don’t want to spend one dime promoting the expanded burning of fossil fuels. Sorry.
Every inch of roadway built anywhere should require an acre of rainforest replanted. No carbon offset, no roads. Period.
How long can the readers of this blog flatly ignore climate change, along with the rest of the planet?
Actually, Facts, if you can find some sort of equivalence numbers, you might be able to get some traction with this idea. I doubt that the number is 1″ = 1 acre, but the idea that building new roadways should be carbon neutral is not bad at all, and simply recognizes one of the real costs involved with new roads.
Oh and Will, just to back up a bit – it is Seattle legislators that killed the tunnel, not suburban D’s. Frank Chopp circulated the anti tunnel letter to all his House members – it wasn’t Judy Clibborn or any other suburban D.
I suspect if every Seattle legislator supported building a tunnel, we’d be building a tunnel by about now, don’t you?
John, I would just like to see carbon offset entering into the conversation on ALL projects moving forward.
My personal belief is that every gallon of gas sold, every construction project built, every service rendered, and every product produced would have to include the price to offset the damage done to the environment, including greenhouse gases. This is the only real solution to global warming, pollution, and environmental degradation I can think of. Sustainable living on all levels. Period.
You know, I’m fascinated by people who think 520 somehow isn’t Seattle’s infrastructure problem. Go look and see how many Microsoft employees (or other people who work on the Eastside) live in Seattle sometime. In fact, the reverse commute (live in Seattle, work on Eastside) is worse than the suburban commute because the excess freeway capacity on I-90 (express/HOV lanes) is set up for the suburban commute.
I really don’t have an issue with the Legislature putting the money for a viaduct down towards 520 if we’re going to be caught in the usual Seattle clusterfuck about a transportation project, where the city leaders dither about what to do. It’s actually a 50-50 coin slip which is going to go first in an earthquake or storm, I suspect, 520 or the viaduct, and if there’s a broad consensus about replacing 520 that doesn’t involve City Hall and Olympia getting in a pissing contest, why not work on it first?
24-
I’d love to live in Seattle and do my part to diminish urban sprawl. Unfortunately, you can’t find jack shit in terms of house purchases under 300K, and BARELY any 2 BR condos.
My father bought a 3 BR house as a low-level federal civil servant supporting a wife and two kids in 1973 in Laurelhurst for less than $30,000- maybe two year’s salary for him. I make more than King County median salary (45K a year), I have one child living with me, and I have ZERO chance of qualifying for anything other than a condo, short of poisoning relatives and inheriting their estate.
Oh, and the condos in downtown? Think 500K and up. Very often up. (A search on windemere.com for condos with two bedrooms under 250,000 yields exactly ZERO condos in the downtown core- and a grand total of SIX between N. 85th St and Boeing Field.) Thanks, Mayors Nickels and Rice, and you good liberal Democrats on the Seattle City Council! You’ve priced me out of the city of my birth by making Seattle a city of the rich and the poor- and nothing in between.
That in and of itself is part of the reason for sprawl. There’s nothing approaching affordable housing for purchase in Seattle. Even the NewHolly stuff was at something pushing 200K a few years back (I would imagine they are at 300K by now). What a joke.
Eponymous Coward–
We feel your pain….seriously!
However, it is sadly an urban phenomenon….especially on the Left Coast.
Plant some Scotch Broom somewhere as a “Carbon Offset” to satisfy “Facts Support” and buy East of Issaquah. It will be the new Seattle when the big Cascadian Faultline earthquake wipes out the Puget Sound Region.
Hell, North Bend might even be waterfront according to Algore.
One thing that the proponents of the Surface+Transit option need to take into account is freight mobility. Seattle used to have a 24 hour advantage over the California Posts, and it was not lost because of faster container ships, but because of faster frieght handling at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The Alameda Corridor made it easier for container trains to be assembled at the port, avoid over 100 grade crossings, running through a triple-tracked trench that basically is a tollway for railroads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda_Corridor
Mexico is seeing new Container SuperPorts where the ships dock, and can be unloaded much cheaper. Union Pacific is championing the new one at Puento Colenet on the Baja California Peninsula, and is working on planning a new rail line that bypasses San Diego, and links up with their already over-burdened Sunset Route at Yuma, Arizona.
http://www.azrail.org/2007/yum.....rail-line/
Now to fund some improvements for freight mobility, Senator Haugen proposed a Container Tax, but it is meeting some resistance from Totem Ocean Trailer Express, which operates between Tacoma and Alaska, and are afraid of passing the cost onto Alaskans.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....source=rss
Everyone is missing the point!!!! We talk about new roads,bridges and tunnels don’t we realize that Oil is finite!!!!! With China and India, who together have over 2 billion consumers who will be using more and more oil based products do you really believe we can continue to ignore the need for light rail and other forms of mass transit. In Europe it can cost over $80 to fill your tank. Mark my word, in a few years gas here will be well over the $5 and $6 a gallon. Build the tracks now and forget the new roads for the one in a car (tank) commuter.
Every time I check out comments relating to the V*#duct, I search the page for “retrofit,” and I never find it. Why is that? Wasn’t a retrofit supposed to be a feasible option, and relatively quite cheap? Makes me wonder if the endless tunnel/rebuild bickering isn’t in fact a subterranean battle of the developer titans. And I assume there’s plenty of them lined up at the trough for the surface option as well.
Wait a second. Wasn’t the state’s plan in case of no viaduct to take its $2.8 billion ball over to Lake Washington and the 520 bridge? In that case Seattle is getting $1 billion more than before.
Am I missing anything here? If so, please explain.
The SR 520 project is THE MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT ON THE HORIZON FROM A STATEWIDE PERSPECTIVE. Nothing else comes close. That is how the gas tax increase proceeds should be spent, in order to provide for the biggest bang for the statewide buck. Got it yet, W.C.C.?
@49:
I wasn’t criticizing any emphasis on 520. Try reading my question again. Here’s a hint: I’m not asking about 520.