State officials determined to improve passenger train service through Pierce County have ruled out two costly proposals that would expand the existing rail line or build a new one.
Their review will now focuses on a pair of remaining options: Do nothing or make $91 million in improvements to reroute the high-speed trains to the west side of Interstate 5 through DuPont, Lakewood and South Tacoma.
The controversial project, opposed by the cities of Lakewood and DuPont, is known as the Point Defiance Bypass.
The Washington State Department of Transportation had put the bypass on the fast track until last summer, when the Federal Railroad Administration required the state to look at alternatives as a condition of using federal stimulus money.
Now WSDOT officials are updating local city leaders on the proposed bypass’s environmental assessment as it nears the home stretch. They appeared Monday night before the Lakewood City Council, which has formally opposed the bypass due to safety and other concerns.
The bypass would shift passenger trains from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline near Port Defiance to the inland route that allow speeds up to 79 mph. It’s one of 15 projects intended to increase the frequency and reliability of Amtrak service between Portland and Seattle. The state has secured $750 million in federal dollars for the projects.
WSDOT also examined the options of widening the current shoreline route with a third rail line or constructing a new route east and south of Interstate 5.
In late July, the federal agency agreed with WSDOT that further study of either option was unwarranted, said Larry Mattson, the bypass project’s environmental manager. Either would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the project’s price tag, he said.
The widening alternative would require crews to “move a lot of earth” to install bridges, tunnels and retaining walls. And building a new route would require running tracks through the Nisqually Indian Reservation and Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Receiving approvals could delay the project for several years, Mattson said, and there’s no guarantee WSDOT would secure them.
Lakewood Councilman Michael Brandstetter took umbrage to the suggestion that because local cities have less say than federal agencies, it “makes us a more inviting route.”
Councilman Jason Whalen suggested WSDOT plan an Amtrak stop in Lakewood so residents don’t feel they get “all of the burden but very little of the benefit.” Mattson replied it would examine the idea but the additional travel time would be a drawback.
Lakewood resident Alan Hart urged the City Council to continue resisting the project. He said the bypass would “destroy our neighborhood and permanently disrupt our lives so a few people from Seattle can save six minutes getting to Portland.
“They (WSDOT officials) view us as a speed bump, a lump in the road to be run over,” Hart said.
The environmental assessment is scheduled for release in late summer or early fall of 2012.
Christian Hill: 253-274-7390 christian.hill@ thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune. com/street
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