In an article on Horse’s Ass Blog (click here), the site posts verbiage from the House Transportation Budget (click here):
“(17) The department shall not sign the final environmental impact statement for the east link project or negotiate an airspace lease with sound transit for the use of the Interstate 90 center roadway for exclusive use by light rail until completion of an independent facility asset assessment by the joint transportation committee.”
In an article today in the Seattle Times titled: “State budget cuts could hit I-90 light rail”, Mike Lindblom reports:
“As they look for budget cuts, state lawmakers are backing out of their earlier $29 million commitment to help Sound Transit build light rail across the Interstate 90 Floating Bridge.”
Here’s an interesting bit, pointing out the financial relationship (and possibly implied bias) between Transportation Choices Coalition (TCC)Â & Sound Transit:
” I think it is a betrayal to the voters, especially Eastside voters who are counting on the commitment to get rail,” said Bill LaBorde, state policy director for the Transportation Choices Coalition. (Sound Transit is a contributor to the coalition’s education fund.)
This looks like a negotiation to see who will pay for the project:
“State Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island, said Sound Transit will have to pay for access to I-90 anyway and the $29 million car-pool-lane cost would become part of that discussion.”…
Interesting point re: the history of what Sound Transit previously promised…
….”Michael Ennis, transportation analyst for the conservative Washington Policy Center, said Sound Transit should bear the full cost, because the agency promised two-way car-pool and bus lanes as part of the 1996 Sound Move ballot measure. “
State budget cuts could hit I-90 light rail Seattle Times, United States As they look for budget cuts, state lawmakers are backing out of their earlier $29 million commitment to help Sound Transit build light rail across the Interstate 90 Floating Bridge. By Mike Lindblom As they look for budget cuts, state lawmakers are ... |
Back in January I speculated about the future of the Seattle P-I's famous Globe. Some at the paper (like Joel Connelly) were irritated that I was speculating before the paper's heart had stopped beating. But another reporter at the paper asked me if it was true that the Museum of History and Industry had a pre-arranged agreement with owner Hearst Corp. about who would get custody of the Globe. I talked with MOHAI and found no such arrangement had been made, though the museum already has the P-I's original neon sign and the paper's photo archives. MOHAI's Leonard ...
Eastside light rail: yes, but where? Seattle Post Intelligencer Owners of businesses and homes along some proposed routes told Sound Transit's board Thursday that the line should go elsewhere; Bellevue business owners and city officials agreed on the need for a tunnel through their downtown, but not on the type or ... |
This information re: funding the R8A center roadway came in an email from Representative Fred Jarrett:
“The I-90 center roadway was funded with a combination of federal funds and state gas taxes. Gas taxes are constitutionally protected and cannot be used to fund transit projects, and the federal funds come with strings attached to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).  It is critical all three parties (ST, the state and FHWA) have a sense of urgency regarding the negotiations driven by the ST schedule for construction of light rail across the floating bridge.
Funding R8A is dependent on these negotiations. I have no doubt that the ST share of R8A, the compensation for FHWA funding of the center roadway and tolls (HOT lanes or full tolling of general purpose lanes) will provide adequate funding for the project and on a timeline which will support East Link schedules.”
More to come…
The meeting of the citizen advisory committee is set for next Thursday in Gig Harbor.
The state Transportation Commission is looking at a possible increase in tolls paid by motorists who have transponders, to $3.25 from $2.75 for a standard toll, for a 2-axle vehicle. (An axel is a figure-skating move. Thought I'd share that. I just learned it myself.)
Tolls paid at the toll booth would stay at $4.
Randy Boss, self-appointed bridge watchdog from Gig Harbor, has suggested the state instead consider hiking the toll booth tolls to $5 and leaving the $2.75 transponder toll where ...
The Seattle Transit Blog reports today that the Legislature has not funded a transportation project that, in STB’s opinion, would delay ST2 East Link Light Rail:
“March 25, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Legislature Blocks East Link Today at 12:30, the state Senate Transportation Committee released their 2009-2011 budget proposed project list (see LEAP Transportation Document 2009-1, Highway Projects).
R8A, the I-90 HOV lane project that MUST be complete for East Link to be built, is completely missing. This blocks a $4.5 billion investment that we’ve already funded.
On the other hand, there’s plenty of money for I-405 widening, a project regional voters voted against in the 2007 Roads & Transit measure.
If no change is made here immediately, this decision will delay East Link, as well as up the price tag by hundreds of millions for every year of delay.”
Regardless, is there something we don’t know about the future viability of getting light rail across a floating bridge (never been done in the world)?
Is the Washington State budget so bad that delaying the project is necessary? STB doesn’t mention that because of the economy, Sound Transit’s tax projections are reported to be $2.1 Billion short. Click here
Are all of the East Link B segments so problematic (huge environmental concerns, condemnations, transportation & business impacts in Downtown Bellevue if B3 is utilized, historical impacts to numerous resources on the National Register of Historic Places & eligible properties, etc) that none of them are affordable to mitigate?
Is it a glaring omission by legislators?
More to come…