A divided Pierce County Council will take two competing road construction plans to a regional transportation meeting Friday – one with and one without key funding for the proposed cross-base highway.
Which one is approved is anyone’s guess.
County Executive John Ladenburg and four members of the Pierce County Council released a proposal Wednesday that boosts cross-base highway funding by $160 million and reduces funding for other projects, including Highway 162 in East Pierce County. It also boosts spending on Highway 167, the county’s top priority.
Supporting the plan are council Chairman Terry Lee, R-Gig Harbor, and council members Roger Bush, R-Graham; Barbara Gelman, D-Tacoma; and Calvin Goings, D-Puyallup.
Councilman Shawn Bunney, R-Lake Tapps, unveiled his own revised plan Wednesday, which also would boost funding for Highway 167 and provide less money for Highway 162.
Bunney’s plan does not include key funding for the cross-base highway. Councilmen Tim Farrell, D-Tacoma, and Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom, have sided with Bunney.
Though a majority of the council opposes his plan, Bunney is chairman of the executive board of the Regional Transportation Investment District, which is set to approve a final three-county roads package on Friday.
Both sides say they will take their plan to Friday’s meeting. And both say their plan, financed by sales and motor vehicle excise taxes, has the best chance of winning voter approval in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties in November.
“Folks, if we don’t get a yes vote (on the package), all of this was for nothing,” investment district consultant Jim Waldo told a group of government and business leaders Wednesday morning.
The dueling road plans are the result of weeks of debate over Pierce County’s portion of the $6.9 billion, three-county roads package. Voters will consider the roads package along with Sound Transit’s $10.8 billion request to expand rail and bus service in the region.
Backers of both plans agree Pierce County desperately needs highway improvements to address traffic congestion and improve freight access to the Port of Tacoma and the Frederickson industrial area.
But they disagree about whether it’s politically smart to push ahead with the cross-base highway, which would link Interstate 5 and Highway 7 on a route between Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base.
Both plans would spend more than $2 billion on highway construction in Pierce County.
As it stands, the investment district’s plan includes money to extend Highway 167 from Puyallup to the Port of Tacoma and to widen Highway 162 near Sumner and Orting. It also would build Interstate 5 interchanges associated with the cross-base highway. And it would widen 176th Street East and part of Canyon Road.
But it would not include money for the portion of the cross-base highway that actually passes through the bases.
Bunney says the investment district’s plan would avert a showdown with environmental groups that oppose the highway and have pledged to lobby against the ballot measure if it’s included. By building the I-5 interchanges, Bunney says the plan would cover most of the cost of the cross-base highway. And by widening 176th, he says, it will address traffic congestion in Frederickson.
Still, Bunney unveiled his own revised plan that would boost funding for Highway 167 by about $190 million. It would fully fund a two-lane extension of the highway and add a partial interchange at I-5.
Bunney’s plan would cut funding for Highway 162 by $116 million. It also counts on $45 million from the Port of Tacoma and $30 million in savings through construction efficiencies.
Bunney believes boosting funding for Highway 167 – the county’s top priority – makes the roads package stronger.
“It will be fully funded if the council will let voters have a choice,” he told a group of business and government leaders gathered Wednesday morning at the Port Business Center.
Ladenburg has threatened to veto the roads package unless it includes more money for the cross-base highway. He says the highway is crucial for economic development and for gaining the support of voters in Spanaway and Parkland.
The standoff has put the County Council in a difficult position. If Ladenburg vetoes the roads package, Pierce County voters might get left behind in November as King and Snohomish counties move ahead with their own plans. Now a council majority is backing Ladenburg’s demand to include more funding for the cross-base highway.
The four council members pushing the alternative plan say their proposal would boost cross-base funding by $160 million and raise funding for Highway 167 by $75 million. They’re also counting on $60 million from the Port of Tacoma for Highway 167.
The plan calls for a partial Highway 167 interchange at I-5 that is not in the investment district’s plan. And it includes $35 million that could be used to offset environmental impacts and build bicycle and pedestrian trails or other enhancements.
To offset the additional investments, the council members would reduce funding for Highway 162 by $205 million and also cut funding for 176th Street and for ramp meters on I-5.
What happens next is uncertain.
On Friday, 21 County Council members from Pierce, King and Snohomish counties will meet to approve a final roads plan. Beforehand, the investment district’s seven-member executive board – led by Bunney – will consider any amendments to the plan.
The Pierce County Council’s four-member majority is lobbying council members in King and Snohomish counties to adopt their plan, the one with the cross-base highway. Lee, the council chairman, said he hopes they’ll respect “the will of the majority of the Pierce County Council and the executive.”
Bunney said the rival plan doesn’t fully pay for Highway 167 improvements. And he said it doesn’t address political opposition from environmentalists.
Bryan Flint, executive director of the Tahoma Audubon Society, condemned the plan proposed by the council majority.
“I think RTID passed a package that gets everybody on board,” Flint said. “This plan threatens to blow all that up.”
Council members on both sides of the issue spoke of possible compromise. But none backed down Wednesday.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this,” Goings said. “Pierce County hasn’t looked the best in the last week or two.”
Competing road plans
The Pierce County Council will take two competing road construction plans to a regional transportation meeting on Friday – one proposed by Councilman Shawn Bunney and an alternative supported by four other council members. Here’s a summary of the differences:
Shawn Bunney’s plan
Boosts funding for:
• Highway 167
Cuts funding for:
• Highway 162
Council’s alternative
Boosts funding for:
• Cross-base highway
• Highway 167
• Environmental mitigation, trails and other amenities
Cuts funding for:
• Highway 162
• 176th Street East
• Ramp meters on I-5
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