Although the Legislature voted to boost the state gas tax in 2003 to raise money for a new Alaskan Way Viaduct in downtown Seattle, that first $177 million appropriation turned out to be little more than a down payment on what has now become a $4.24 billion project.
It took an additional 9.5-cent gas tax increase in 2005 – on top of the nickle-a-gallon increase in 2003 – to provide the bulk of state’s share of the project. And it was only this past April that the project broke loose from the political and financial logjam that had stymied the project for the past seven years.
The Legislature gave its approval to a deep-bore tunnel to replace the elevated roadway along Seattle’s waterfront and committed $2.4 billion in state funding for the project. And for the first time, lawmakers also said the project must be tolled, although tolls will only provide a sliver of the total cost.
Lawmakers told the Department of Transportation to do more work on a tolling study to better refine estimates of how much money can be collected from drivers who want to drive through the tunnel.
Lawmakers want up to $400 million to come from tolls, and have capped the state’s share at $2.8 billion, including toll revenues.
Ron Paananen, the DOT manager who is in charge of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project, said that tolling study will take place over the next several months.
Paananen said there would be no toll booths at the entrances to the 1.7-mile tunnel under downtown Seattle. Instead, the state would use “open-road” tolling. That would use devices similar to the windshield-mounted transponders on vehicles that cross the Narrows Bridge and use the toll lanes on Highway 167 in South King County. Motorists would have to set up pre-paid debit accounts with the DOT to pay their tolls.
Paananen said a variable toll – high tolls during rush hours; much lower tolls in off-peak hours – seems likely.
“Off peak, it would have to be pretty low to prevent a lot of diversion to city streets or Interstate 5,” he said.
Even if tolls do account for a full $400 million, that would be only 14 percent of the total $2.8 billion viaduct replacement. Taxpayers statewide will pay 86 percent of the cost.
By comparison, only $48 million of the total $735 million cost of the Narrows Bridge project – or less than 7 percent of the project – was paid with gas tax funds. Local commuters pay the remaining 93 percent.
The disparity sticks in the craw of many Narrows Bridge commuters.
“My constituents are very sensitive to that,” said state Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor. “They look at the $2.4 billion from the state and say, ‘I thought these guys were supposed to build their own tunnel’.”
State-paid improvements to the Highway 16 corridor, including the huge Nalley Valley viaduct project, take some of the sting out of the imbalance, he said.
“The problem will be if they run into cost problems (on the Seattle tunnel) and they come back to the Legislature, asking for more money,” Seaquist said.
Seaquist believes any cost overruns should be picked up by tolling.
As it stands now, downtown Seattle property owners whose lands and building will rise in value because the eyesore viaduct is being removed would cover any cost overruns. But Seaquist and many others believe that provision in the bill that passed the 2009 legislative session is unenforceable. The state would have to pay for cost overruns on the tunnel project, he said.
Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond pledged there will be no cost overruns on the project. And Paananen said there is $418 million in the project budget that is set aside for contingencies.
Most of the tunnel boring work under First Avenue would take place between mid-2011 and mid-2013. The tunnel is expected to open to traffic in 2015 and the rest of the viaduct would be torn down in 2016, Paananen said.
The fact that the viaduct will remain in use during construction of its replacement is a big part of the reason that state officials don’t expect the project to turn into another “Big Dig,” the Boston highway project whose cost skyrocketed from an initial estimate of $2.8 billion to more than $24 billion. Officials in Boston had to go to great and expensive lengths to maintain traffic flows during construction. Seattle won’t have to – as long as the viaduct remains upright.
The final phase of the viaduct replacement project will be rebuilding the Alaskan Way surface street and promenade along the waterfront and construction of a new roadway on the property where the viaduct now sits. That part of the project also is the responsibility of the state and its taxpayers.
Seattle, King County and the Port of Seattle are supposed to come up with the $1.44 billion of the overall $4.24 billion. Those governments and local property owners are supposed to pay for repairs to the seawall and other facets of the project.
However, there are no contracts that legally bind them to do so, said state Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee. There is only a nonbinding agreement among Gov. Chris Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and former King County Executive Ron Sims that divvies up various responsibilities for project costs and overruns.
Joseph Turner: 360-786-1826
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com
blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics
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