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My anti I-985 rant
2008 Aug 6, 19h
Originally posted on the Seattle P-I’s Sound Off. Thanks for wasting 3 hours of my life.
Here is a bit of history of local highways and bridges for those interested:
The original highway serving the west coast was the Pacific Highway (US 99). The Washington portion of the road was established as Primary State Highway 1 in 1905 and was designated US 99 in 1926. The missing link that was the Ship Canal was bridged by the George Washington Memorial Bridge in 1932 completing the highway between Canada and Mexico.
Planning for I-5, then called the Tacoma-Seattle-Everett “toll superhighway”, began in 1952. Construction began in 1957 and the freeway was completed in 1967. The state originally wanted it to be a toll road but it was found unconstitutional. The federal government resolved the funding problem with the landmark National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 of which 90% of the construction costs are to be paid by the federal government and the state the remainder.
Residents of First Hill and neighborhoods protested the construction of the freeway. Downtown interests were concerned about increased traffic. About a hundred people marched against it, beginning the “freeway revolt” movement in Seattle that would later kill inner-city freeway projects like the R.H. Thomson expressway along the east side and central areas of Seattle, the Bay Freeway connecting I-5 and 99 where the current Mercer mess is, and delay I-90 construction for a decade. In the end, 4,500 parcels of land in Seattle were used for I-5.
The Lake Washington Floating Bridge was opened in 1940. It carried US-10, now called I-90 across the lake to Mercer Island. Designed by engineer Homer Hadley, it is the 2nd longest floating bridge in the world (how’s that for the ingenuity of our engineers). It was originally a four lane, two-way bridge using reversible lanes to accommodate the rush hour flow of traffic into Seattle. Tolls on the bridge were removed in 1946.
The increasing traffic of the bridge led to the construction of the 520 bridge in 1960 and an expansion of the I-90 bridge. Original plans called for a brand new 10 to 14 lane wide (that’s right, 14 lanes!) bridge which infuriated Seattle residents. Construction of I-90 through Seattle began in 1960 and was halted by a lawsuit in 1972. The state was forced to redesign the entire project, resulting in the current configuration of tunnels, bridges, and lids. Construction resumed in 1981 and was finally completed in 1989.
The Evergreen Point floating bridge is the longest floating bridge in the world. It was opened in 1963 and tolls were collected until 1979.
Sources: HistoryLink, Wikipedia, Erick Johnson
I-405 history from Kurumi.com:
The portion of I-405 from NE 160th St. to what is now Sunset Blvd opened in stages from 1954 to 1957. It was originally called “Secondary State Hwy 2A” (SSH-2A) until 1964, when it became State Route 405. It was to have been posted US 99E, but by 1964 the 405 signs were replacing WA 1 signs. The section from I-90 to Kirkland was 4 lanes, as was the section between 112th and Sunset Blvd in the south end; the remainder was 2 lanes, undivided.
The southern end was upgraded by 1965, and the north end was connected to I-5 in 1968. The section in between 160th St. and Kirkland was widened to six lanes around 1971.
Now back to the topic of Eyman.
It is unlikely that any major projects of such scale in the past would ever be built today. The federal Highway Trust Fund will face a shortfall of $8.1 billion by the time Congress has to reauthorize the highway program. Why the shortfall? Because of high gas prices, people are driving less and the federal gas tax hasn’t been raised in 14 years. The same goes for the state gas tax except we’ve recently raised it by much more. As people switch to more efficient vehicles that use less or no fuel, or drive less and switch to mass transit, revenue from the gas tax will only continue to decline. Plus inflation will make revenue collected worth less every year. The MVET is gone thanks to $30 car tabs. Sales tax revenue is falling short because of the economy. Where are we going to get the money to fix our infrastructure? It’s time to start talking about tolls. Spending the money where it belongs is flawed because it disregards the entire system. Transportation should be viewed as a system not just the 520 bridge or just the viaduct. If only 520 is tolled and not I-90 people are going to avoid 520 if they can, causing gridlock on I-90 (which oddly enough, makes light rail on I-90 much more attractive). If only 520 was tolled, there ought to be more transit service on it to take advantage of better flow and to be fair but I-985 will not allow tolls to be used for improving transit service on 520. Oh well, at least bicyclists and joggers get to cross for free no matter what happens.
As congestion continues to increase, which will increase regardless of this initiative passing or not, opening HOV lanes will make carpooling less attractive and transit less reliable, making more people choosing to drive alone, further increasing congestion… Mandatory traffic signal synchronization, in the strictest sense, will eliminate transit signal priority designed to keep buses reliable. With these policies in place, no amount of lanes can ever reduce congestion on our roadways. Not to mention the fact that trying to construct more lanes once available land is exhausted (by double decking or tunnels etc.) will end up costing more than Sound Transit’s rail project. The so-called bus rapid transit advocates better take a look at this initiative. If it passes, your dreams of BRT crisscrossing the region instead of light rail will become a nightmare.
Why is this even a state initiative? Most of the traffic congestion problems in the state are in the Puget Sound region. All the HOV lanes in the state are in this region. Why should someone in Spokane tell us how to manage our traffic problems? Let alone mandating fixed hours of opening HOV lanes which is out of touch with reality. The issue is irrelevant to most people outside the region. Putting on the statewide ballot is just a trick to guarantee that the Seattle haters on the other side will vote for it to get it passed.
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