A consultant to the state transportation commission is preliminarily indicating legislative and public support could be found for tolls on I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass. Today's Tri-City Herald has the story (free reg. may be req.). There are several caveats. First, it's all very speculative right now. Second, the thinking is (correctly) that the tolls would need to be clearly earmarked for congestion-cutting lane-widenings as yet unfunded; and that the tolls would have to be pre-paid and assessed electronically.
"We have had a lot of input that it should be looked at," commissioner Richard Ford told colleagues last week. "Whether it'll ever get off the ground, who knows?" "I think it's very probable," Carol Moser, a Richland member of the commission, said in an interview. "I think it's a fair project to put on the books." The commission is to meet Wednesday at Richland's Courtyard by Marriott hotel. A public comment period is set for 3:30 p.m.The most critical improvement of I-90 already has been funded. Last year the Legislature designated $388 million of the $8.5 billion gas tax and driver fee transportation package for widening the five-mile stretch that runs alongside Keechelus Lake. That's where 80 percent of the area's rockslides and avalanches occur....In the meantime, crews will conduct environmental studies for a plan to expand the highway for another 10 miles to Easton to ease weekend congestion. Rough estimates suggest that could run an additional $400 million to $800 million.
And the state may someday pursue plans to widen another 14 miles from there. "Ultimately, we're going to need six lanes all the way to Cle Elum," said Don Whitehouse, administrator for the Department of Transportation's South Central Region. "On the holiday weekends we're backed up to Cle Elum and sometimes all the way to Ellensburg."
Weekend congestion on I-90 can be horrendous. Assuming IDOT can make headway demonstrating accountability to skeptics and can keep costs in line on current and upcoming major road projects, tolls to complete necessary lane widening on I-90 could become a reality.
UPDATE: More here from AP's David Ammons in today's King County Journal on the likelihood - nay, imminence - of more tolls in our future.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 21, 2006 10:26 AM | Email ThisThese people can't be trusted to do anything right. All they know how to do is waste our transit dollars on politically correct and environmentally correct causes, HOV lanes, Mass Transit to nowhere, etc.
Posted by: Jeff B. on May 21, 2006 11:03 AMDid you really believe that the spend fest was over, the Democrats in Olympia are just getting started!!!!!!!!!
http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060521/NEWS04/60521029
Recently (2004 or 2005), the rules were changed slightly to allow for up to three pilot projects, which could use tolls to rebuild sections of Interstates. I found slightly different accounts of rules for the pilot programs here and here, but neither makes it sound easy to qualify for even one of the three.
Posted by: Jim Miller on May 21, 2006 02:40 PMIf those three extra lanes were available to the general public, the transportation problems with I-90 would be solved for the next decade or more.
Posted by: Reporterward on May 21, 2006 04:05 PM21-1/2 yrs. of rule by these KLOWNS.
Anybody for giving the other guys a chance?
Not to mention toll bridges across the Hudson, Delaware and Susquehanna rivers.
4th highest taxed state in the Nation - Ask the Libs
Highest Gas tax in the nation - Ask the Libs
They are one tax happy bunch! Anyone seen your 2007 property tax evaluation yet? Up 15% to 20%
and more just this year alone. And they are still crying the blues about being out of money!
Sim's want's a higher sales tax, Gregoire and her bunch want a 9% income tax. We are soon to be the highest taxed state in the nation!
What an award LIBS! Something to really remember you by!
Remember we will!
125 Million dollars for a Chipmunk Commute. do Chipmunks need bike lanes? How about Chipmunk Mass Transit? I hear Ron and the ST crew are all over this urgent,nay "Emergency" situation facing a underserved population.
This is the result of 20 years of one party domination in Washington State by Democrats. Chipmunk overpasses, 125 million isn't peanuts.
Posted by: Roscoe on May 22, 2006 09:11 AM
Tolls suck. Improvements, if needed, on the pass, need to be paid for by the citizens of the state (gas tax). The pass is an economic benefit to all. So, come up with the proposal, then come to us with a request for money tied specifically to the project (gas tax or 1 cent or something). The tax ends when the project is complete.
If you sell me on it, I will vote for it.
Posted by: blah on May 22, 2006 09:27 AM