Tag Archives: 520

News, Politics, Transportation

Sustainable 520 Coalition NIMBYs Their Way to Support of Eyman’s I-1125

The SunBreak’s reporting on the Sustainable 520 Coalition has tended to champion their local homeowners’ underdog fight against WSDOT plans for a much larger replacement bridge, but their latest move is, forgive us, a bridge too far.

“Why Voting FOR initiative 1125 Will Stop the 520 Project” is the subject line of the group’s email, where they discuss supporting Tim Eyman’s absurd initiative as a way of forestalling 520 expansion. As they point out, I-1125’s balderdash would work, to some extent, in their favor:

  • It prevents tolls on I-90 being used for the expansion of SR 520.
  • It says tolls have to be the same all day and night.

“This means,” the coalition concludes, “there will be insufficient funding to build the west side of SR 520, and the floating bridge probably can’t be expanded.” Yes, and shooting yourself in the head cures cancer.

To be fair, the group does assess the pros and cons of this dance with a lesser demon. What’s not to like about I-1125? They admit:

  • It forbids tolls which vary by time of day to help control congestion.
  • It prevents light rail on I-90.
  • It prevents toll revenues from being used for maintenance and upgrading after the bonds are paid for.

However, the coalition argues, completely unconvincingly, “the policies we don’t like can be changed by the legislature after two years. …[T]he long term consequences of allowing this river of concrete to flow through the City are so great, that it is worth considering the option of voting for I-1125.”

You will have divined that I don’t see the short-term versus long-term strategy in the same terms. Nor do I think throwing I-90’s light rail under a bus (HEY-O!) even temporarily, while the Kemper Freemans of the world are looking for ways to kill it, is canny.

The coalition is succumbing to a NIMBY mindset, when they should be seeking common cause. This move supports the wider perception that the spoiled little rich residents of Montlake don’t like the noise and fuss of construction, when they’re working so hard to frame the problem with the new bridge in terms of environmental impact. If the only environment you’re concerned with is your backyard, you lose moral ground.

News, Transportation

The Autumn of Our Traffic Backup Discontent

The 520 Bridge with traffic, unlike this weekend when it will be closed (Photo: MvB)

Traffic was going to be a little hinky at times anyway this weekend, thanks to Saturday Huskies (12:30 p.m.) and Sounders (7:30 p.m.) games, but WSDOT is also going to be working on the 520 bridge, which is slightly less old than its namesake, Albert Rosellini, who died this week at 101.

Well after the Huskies play, at 8 p.m., both directions of the SR 520 floating bridge and highway and all ramps between Montlake Boulevard and I-405 will be closed until 5 a.m. Monday. You will be able to get on 520 at Montlake and get to I-5; it’s just east to the bridge that’s closed for the weekend. If you normally drive I-90, expect to see a lot of new, somewhat harried faces, especially just before the Sounders game starts.

There’s also the Puget Sound Heart Walk (which has raised $1.2-ish million of its $1.6-million goal). That begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, with walkers taking off from Fisher Pavilion, walking around Seattle Center, and heading down Second Avenue to Seneca and back. King County Metro is publishing a list of reroutes, so don’t get smug, bus riders.

Think of all this as practice for the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure coming up on October 21. For this news, WSDOT grabs the boldface pixels: “At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, the State Route 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct will close for nine-days.” Nine-days is so long, it gets a hyphen!

The nine-day closure of the viaduct will be the longest ever for a Seattle area highway. With one of the major north-south highways through Seattle closed, drivers from across the Puget Sound region will be significantly affected by the closure. Even if you commute from Lynnwood and Bellevue, you will see increased congestion as the nearly 110,000 drivers that use the viaduct daily look for somewhere else to go.

Where’s your bus? Writes Metro’s Kevin Desmond: “Metro will move 11 routes from the viaduct to Fourth Avenue South. After the viaduct reopens, those routes will begin using the new viaduct bypass.”

This closure will be interesting to watch–if not experience–because nine days is long enough to force behavior patterns to change. If there’s no carpocalypse, people may ask themselves why the state and city chose the single most expensive Viaduct replacement option on the table.

On the other hand, if carmagedd0n does come, that’s a glimpse of life in the near future, as construction ramps up. Per Seattlepi.com: “The $30 million set aside to increase Seattle transit options during the construction of the tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct will run out by 2014 – two years before the project is finished, the City Council was told Tuesday.”

News, Transportation

Balky Contractors Push Back Against WSDOT’s SR 520 Opening Date

(Photo: MvB)

WSDOT has announced all three design-build contractor teams for the SR 520 project have indicated WSDOT’s aggressive schedule carries enough risk that they’d have to submit higher bids than WSDOT might like. That can’t happen, because this project, like the deep-bore tunnel, has a funding cap.

Presto!

While the goal for replacing the aging State Route 520 floating bridge remains December 2014, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is providing more flexibility to open the new bridge to traffic by July 2015–a move that could reduce risk and make for better bids on the project.

Note that non-armor-plated “could,” which means that WSDOT is also announcing that the six-month delay might not reduce risk or make for better bids. WSDOT is still pushing hard for a December 2014 opening date, and has built in an early-finish incentive package of up to $2.5 million. WSDOT Deputy Transportation Secretary Dave Dye says lower bids are expected make up for the incentives.

WSDOT’s SR 520 project site still displays $2 billion unfunded for the bridge replacement, and thanks to a delay in implementing tolling is foregoing about $1 million per week in anticipated revenue. WSDOT plans to make up for that by extending the life of the tolls.