Tolls now, replace bridge later

BELLEVUE -- Gov. Chris Gregoire wants early toll collections on the Evergreen Point Bridge to close the funding gap for a long-awaited bridge replacement, she announced Thursday.

Emphasizing the urgent need to replace the aging span across Lake Washington, Gregoire said requiring 520 users to pay a toll as early as 2009 would allow the bridge to be built by 2018 "without new taxes."

The governor's funding proposal would provide $4 billion for a six-lane bridge replacement -- two general-purpose lanes and one HOV/ transit lane in each direction.

The state would give $2 billion, with the other half coming from tolling, which requires legislative authorization, Gregoire said. The $4 billion figure includes construction costs and $400 million for mitigating impacts on each side of the bridge -- west and east, she said.

"It's about safety first, but also a wonderful opportunity to do something about daily congestion across the 520 Bridge," Gregoire said. At a news conference at Bellevue City Hall, the governor cited the "wake-up call" triggered by the collapse last year of a Minneapolis bridge, which was not as old as the 520 Bridge.

She acknowledged the public voted down Proposition 1, a transportation measure that would have provided $1.2 billion to replace the 520 Bridge, but said, "The message I heard from that vote was no new taxes; I'm not putting new taxes in this proposal."

Supporters of the governor's plan said that if the Legislature approves earlier tolls on the 520 Bridge, it could reduce the cost of tolls by spreading them over a longer period of time.

Calling 520 a critical transportation and economic corridor, officials including King County Executive Ron Sims and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels applauded the proposal, saying it could overcome funding concerns and move the replacement project ahead.

Sims said he supports "variable tolling" -- a toll that rises at peak travel hours. Variable tolls elsewhere in the country have been found to increase transit use and reliability and reduce traffic congestion and polluting emissions, he said.

"People want the bridge replaced; we simply can't delay replacing it," Sims said, adding that electronic technology now means "no stopping" at tolls. "I believe variable tolling is the true solution to the problem."

Bellevue Mayor Grant Degginger said, "We need this economic link made safe not for today or tomorrow but for the next 50 to 100 years."

The plan was panned mostly by Republican lawmakers and Dino Rossi, who narrowly lost to Gregoire in the 2004 election and recently renewed his challenge for the governor's office.

Criticism was mostly twofold -- that a funding plan should not precede a bridge design, and that the bridge should be eight lanes, a configuration dismissed as not eco-friendly and technically unworkable.

"This is what she calls leadership? It is disappointing that she is only willing to consider a six-lane bridge that cannot be expanded," said Jill Strait, Rossi spokeswoman. "We need a forward-looking proposal that will consider future capacity; otherwise the new bridge will be obsolete and insufficient by the time it opens."

Rossi expects to release his own transportation plan in coming months, Strait said.

"The real issue is what the new bridge will look like and how much it will cost. We need to first nail down the bridge design and cost before we figure out how to pay for it," said Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester and ranking Republican on the Senate Transportation Committee.

Gregoire said a toll on the 520 Bridge could shift traffic to Interstate 90 -- the last thing anybody wants. The governor will urge transportation leaders to discuss tolls with the public to help determine what they should look like and whether they should be extended beyond 520.

"I frankly want to hear from the public on this," said Gregoire, who was noncommittal on any particular toll scheme.

"Something has to give here," she said. "But the last thing we want to do is reduce congestion on 520 and transfer the problem to I-90."

Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island and chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee, said lawmakers intend to gather more data about collecting tolls not only on 520 but on other highways as well before voting.

"We'll probably take up a tolling bill in 2009," Clibborn said. "I'm trying to get people to look at the big picture -- not just 520 and I-90, but the whole system, east-west and north-south. There are all kinds of implications with tolling. ... You won't find the Legislature is quick to act without the supporting documentation."

Initiative entrepreneur Tim Eyman, who attended the meeting Thursday, said Initiative 960, which passed last fall, requires lawmakers to determine in a recorded vote whether tolls will be implemented, rather than leaving the decision to the Washington State Transportation Commission.

On Jan. 4, Eyman filed another initiative called "ReduceCongestion.org" or Initiative 984, which requires that tolls collected for a project, such as 520, can be spent only on that project. Any extra money collected would go to a separate "reduce congestion" account.