Plan to widen 520 bridge wins key backing

After four years of study and conflict, regional leaders gave a tentative nod yesterday to a plan that would add two HOV lanes to state Route 520 across Lake Washington, replace the aging floating bridge and provide for "expandability" for light rail or monorail in the future.

The $5.9 billion plan would also add four shoulders -- two in each direction -- which would mean fewer delays caused by accidents or breakdowns. And the plan calls for a pedestrian and bike path from Montlake Boulevard to state Route 202.

Aubrey Davis, chairman of the state Transportation Commission who headed the Trans-Lake committee, said it was necessary to make the selection now so that the 520 project could be included in a regional tri-county funding package being considered.

The regional group has talked about allocating as much as $1.5 billion of a possible $10 billion regional package to the 520 project.

The regional package is tentatively scheduled to go to voters next May.

"It's the only funding package likely to be seen by this community for some time," Davis said. Delaying a decision and failing to get in on the regional package of projects "is a risk we dare not take," he said.

In the plan approved yesterday, five lids would be included, and Interstate 5 would be widened by one southbound lane from state Route 520 to Stewart Street.

The expandability is achieved by building the bridge pontoons wide enough and strong enough to allow for widening the bridge by 30 feet in the future.

Central to the debate was the issue of roads versus transit and high-occupancy vehicles.

Seattle representatives voted against the six-lane plan with the expandability option, claiming that they needed more assurances that Montlake and Capitol Hill neighborhoods would be protected and that the transit lanes wouldn't be converted into general-purpose vehicle lanes.

They argued first for a six-lane plan that provided for no expandability and then for delaying the decision. They were outvoted on both.

But many Eastside communities, such as Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland also did not achieve their first preference: An eight-lane $7.4 billion alternative that would involve adding two HOV lanes and two general purpose lanes, including a four-lane tunnel and five freeway lids.

Currently, the Evergreen Point floating bridge has four general-purpose lanes, two in each direction. The bridge is considered vulnerable to an earthquake and to high winds, and engineers say it is approaching the end of its useful life.

The plan adopted would affect 22 acres of wetlands and 14 acres of parklands, including 7 acres of direct impact on parklands.

It could displace as many as 16 residences and 28 non-residential buildings. It would require acquiring 59 acres of new right of way.

Two alternatives will be looked at for the intersection of 520 with Montlake Boulevard.

One would keep the existing arrangement, while the other would add a bascule bridge and HOV lanes on Montlake Boulevard across the Montlake Cut.

"There is an issue of trust we have to broach," Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis told Eastside members of the Trans-Lake committee as well as the state Department of Transportation.

Referring to complaints registered at the meeting by neighborhood representatives, Ceis said, "Those suspicions and those concerns are pretty valid."

Grace Crunican, director of Seattle's Department of Transportation, said the state Department of Transportation's recent consideration of allowing general traffic into HOV lanes at night has added to Seattle's concern about the state's commitment to HOV and transit.

The alternative approved yesterday stated that the two-lane expandability would be for "HCT only." HCT stands for high-capacity transit, which could be light rail, bus rapid transit or a monorail. Bus rapid transit refers to fast bus-only lanes.

"What part of 'HCT only' doesn't Seattle understand?" asked King County Councilman Rob McKenna, who represents Bellevue, after the meeting.

He believed Seattle's demands for further assurances were unnecessary.

But another major issue yesterday was the awkward fact that the 18-member committee was voting to adopt a "preliminary" preferred alternative before any environmental analysis had been done.

McKenna and state Department of Transportation representatives said adopting the six-lane option yesterday as the "preliminary preferred alternative" was not foreclosing any options, but merely would allow the process, particularly cost estimating, to proceed.

DiaFelice Smith Salogga from the Hamlin-Shelby neighborhood within Montlake, complained that the project is not keeping within the right-of-way and is encroaching 80 feet on the south side of Hamlin houses. The neighborhood has hired an environmental lawyer and a traffic engineer.

But Eastside representatives argued that the eight-lane approach made the most sense.

Redmond City Councilman Thomas Paine said 520 is the only direct access that area has to the regional highway system.

The eight-lane alternative provides lots of added benefits with little added cost and impact, he said.

The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the option that was adopted yesterday, while the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce and the Bellevue Downtown Association backed the eight-lane plan.

Julie Meyers of Woodinville said she is concerned that all the money is being put toward 520 and none toward improving state Route 522, which runs around the north end of the lake.

"It bothers me very much we're just going to keep cementing over the center of the lake," she said.

King County Councilwoman Cynthia Sullivan and State Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, warned the group that Seattle voters in affected neighborhoods have a record of turning out at the polls in high numbers and also have a record of voting for tax measures, unlike most other areas.

Murray said his legislative district has a record of voting 83 percent in favor of any tax measure on the ballot except for sports stadiums.

He said it would be unwise to alienate them and risk that they would vote down the regional funding package in May or Referendum 51, the gas tax measure, on the November ballot.

But McKenna said, "Seattle uses that argument at every step of negotiations to try to have things their way. Let's not forget they have some very large needs they want funded through Referendum 51 and the regional package, including the Alaskan Way Viaduct."

P-I reporter Jane Hadley can be reached at 206-448-8362 or janehadley@seattlepi.com

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