Gregoire to offer options for 520

After the fall election shot a $1.1 billion hole in the state's Highway 520 plan, Gov. Christine Gregoire is suggesting new ways to fund the bridge.

Her latest ideas, to be announced this morning in Bellevue, include a road deck narrower than some earlier designs and building smaller pontoons beneath it.

Depending on the final design, trimming the size of a new bridge could save the cash-strapped project $100 million to $500 million, said state Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, chair of the House Transportation Committee, who has been briefed on the proposals.

Gregoire and the Democratic-controlled state Legislature would also study whether to reimpose tolls on the existing 1963 bridge, which was paid off in 1979, until a new bridge opens in 2018.

Funding for the replacement bridge will not go before voters again, said Gregoire spokesman Aaron Toso. Instead, the governor is writing a bill aimed at having the Legislature take full responsibility for funding, he said.

In November, a multibillion-dollar Roads & Transit ballot measure included $1.1 billion toward a $4.4 billion floating bridge, but voters rejected it.

Today's four-lane bridge across Lake Washington is cracking and could be ruined by waves in a severe windstorm. On its west side, columns are eroding from within and could break in an earthquake. And with 115,000 weekday trips, traffic fills the bridge or its approaches for several hours a day.

Despite such problems, debates over a new or expanded bridge have dragged on for nearly two decades. The 520 has long been a hot potato because Seattle's lakefront neighbors fear a larger structure would threaten their tranquillity, and because politicians have preferred to channel state money toward highways in their districts.

Gregoire's staff would not release many details Wednesday, but some highlights emerged in interviews with state officials:

• Gregoire apparently will stick with her previous decision, approved by the Legislature, to build four general lanes and two high-occupancy vehicle lanes.

• The current $4.4 billion cost estimate would be reduced, to a range of $3.6 billion to $4.1 billion, by spending less on floating pontoons, said state Treasurer Mike Murphy, who said he was briefed by a senior Gregoire aide.

That idea will be controversial, because the state Department of Transportation had envisioned a series of twin, 75-foot-wide pontoons to provide extra buoyancy, allowing future light-rail or other trains to be added. Instead, the state would look at a single-pontoon design, Murphy said. But any downsizing might hinder a transit retrofit two or three decades from now.

• Lawmakers would not pass a final funding plan until 2009, after months of public outreach and study, said Clibborn.

• Some previously taboo ideas about tolling will get a closer look. One scenario calls for charging tolls on the existing bridge, to slash the interest costs to finance a new span. Murphy has advocated tolling both the old 520 bridge and the Interstate 90 bridge, but lawmakers have been reluctant to do so.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, said he had not seen the governor's proposal, but is willing to discuss tolling ideas. "I'm wanting to work in good faith with everybody, on the amount and timing," he said.

A big question is what Gregoire thinks of the current "Pacific Interchange" option, which features an exit bridge from Foster Island above Union Bay to Husky Stadium. Scrapping that could save money, but also concentrate more ramps and traffic near Montlake-area houses, where an interchange exists now.

Clibborn portrayed today's proposal as a group of options, several of which were aired in 2007, as opposed to a fixed plan.

Gregoire is being challenged for re-election by Republican Dino Rossi, who lost a close, disputed race against her in 2004. "I wonder why there's been nothing from her before this," said Rossi campaign spokeswoman Jill Strait. "She's had three years as governor."

Rossi has yet to share his own views on 520. He will release a state transportation plan later this year, said Strait.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, King County Executive Ron Sims and Bellevue Mayor Grant Degginger are expected to attend Gregoire's announcement at Bellevue City Hall.

Staff reporter Ashley Bach contributed to this report. Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com