520 bridge bill may be recipe for more delays

A bill in Olympia to fund a new Highway 520 bridge seeks three conflicting goals:

• Spend a mere $4.6 billion on the corridor from Interstate 5 to Redmond.

• Add an exit tunnel under the Montlake Cut as House Speaker Frank Chopp wants, even though the state has estimated that option would cost $2 billion more.

• And collect tolls on only the 520 bridge — not on nearby Interstate 90 — a move that would leave the 520 project at least $1 billion short.

The House proposal could be a recipe for further debate and hesitation, a dozen years after the state began to study how to replace the bridge.

If this bill is approved, future Legislatures will have to fill financial holes.

"It's just a first step in getting a start," said House Transportation Committee Chairwoman Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, who said she wrote the proposal in consultation with Chopp. The new bill is to be discussed and possibly approved in committee today.

Officials on both sides of Lake Washington agree on a six-lane floating bridge to replace the four-lane crossing, which was built in 1963 and is at risk of sinking in a severe windstorm or earthquake.

But there's still a dispute over how traffic would go from the bridge to the University of Washington and points north.

Enter the speaker, who represents the Montlake neighborhood.

Wednesday's new bill mandates a tunnel beneath the Montlake Cut linking the highway to UW, so traffic won't use the Montlake Bridge to reach 520. The state Department of Transportation last year said this version, known as "Option K," would increase the price to $6.6 billion.

That's far more than the alternative $4.6 billion version, which features an expanded surface-level interchange at Montlake and adds a second Montlake bridge.

"All the community groups on the west side are unified behind Option K. So I support my constituents," Chopp said last week. Chopp also said he believes the tunnel costs can be brought down.

However, the DOT has not published recent information about possible cost reductions.

Tolls would vary by time of day to reduce congestion; studies have predicted an initial one-way rate of $3.25 in the afternoon peak, if toll collection starts next year.

The revenue would support $1.2 billion in bond sales. Lawmakers would sell another $500 million in bonds, using a yet-unknown money source to repay investors. With that money, plus $1.9 billion in state gas-tax and federal bridge funds, the state still would be $1 billion short of the cheaper $4.6 billion design.

Clibborn said her bill would provide enough money to construct the bridge's pontoons and give the project a start.

Asked about the $1 billion shortfall, Gov. Chris Gregoire indicated she's inclined to sign an imperfect bill, and keep working on a full-funding plan that includes I-90 tolls.

"My goal is to get the 520 bridge built. I don't want to wait any longer," she said Monday. "I want to start pontoon construction this year."

Rep. Deb Eddy, D-Kirkland, isn't so optimistic.

"I think it sets up an expectation for something that cannot be delivered," she said. "I think the sooner everybody gets real, the better." She said another problem is that if lawmakers punt on the question of tolls on I-90, that decision won't get any easier next year.

Besides a Montlake Cut tunnel, the bill calls for the 520 roadway to run at, or near, ground level on the Seattle shore. A shallow cut would be made at the Washington Park Arboretum, so a surface-level "land bridge" would cross the highway there. These features are required unless DOT and west-shore communities agree to alternatives, the bill says.

Clibborn insists this language won't obligate state taxpayers to spend hundreds of millions extra, because other language caps state spending at $4.65 billion. If Chopp and Seattle residents want the tunnel and other improvements, they'll have to find more money, she said.

In other words, Clibborn agreed to incorporate Chopp's tunnel so she can move the tolling bill forward, and accomplish what she really wants in 2009.

It would allow tolling to begin on the old bridge next year, and at variable rates, to control congestion. That way, the region can collect on an experimental $127 million federal grant for buses, toll equipment and park-and-ride expansions.

And if the Montlake problem isn't solved, Clibborn said, DOT could install the new pontoons on the lake, and fasten those to the Seattle stub of the existing bridge — to deal with the safety risk of the old bridge sinking.

Staff reporter Andrew Garber contributed from Olympia.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631