Shunted across bridge by brush fire, drivers fume at ‘U-turn toll’ to get back

After brush fire on the Tacoma side sent scores of motorists on an unscheduled trip across the Narrows Bridge, many were incensed they had to pay a $6 toll to get back.

Among them were Jim Cook, 65, and his wife, who were on their way to Titlow Beach, which is reached by taking Jackson Avenue, the last exit on the Tacoma side of the bridge.

But they found the exit blocked by engines fighting a grass fire, and had no choice but to cross the bridge.

To make the U-turn back to Tacoma, they found, they had to pay sort of ransom at the toll booth.

“The toll person was polite but said her system had no way of waiving a toll payment,” Cook complained. Later, he spent half an hour on hold with Good to Go customer service, only to be told, basically, tough luck.

“There had to be hundreds of people affected” by the July 19 incident, Cook said, who was still fuming about the experience a week later.

Heather Hernandez, a communications worker for Washington State Department of Transportation, said this is a first time an incident like this has happened in the ten years since tolls were restored on the bridge. It’s so rare, she said, that there’s really no protocol for handling it.

Tolls are collected on the Narrows Bridge only in one direction. Westbound traffic travels free. Eastbound traffic pays a toll.

Compounded errors

The situation for travelers on that Sunday, July 19, was compounded by a snafu getting a mobile warning sign set up at Pearl Street, the second exit before the bridge.

Records show that Washington State Patrol arrived on scene for the brush fire, shortly after 2 p.m.

The fire department then arrived at 2:20 p.m., taking up one lane of westbound SR 16.

At 2:30 p.m., WSDOT was notified that the fire department would be blocking the westbound SR 16 exit to Jackson Avenue for firefighting purposes. Around 2:45 p.m., the WSP asked for a WSDOT Incident Response Team to set up a readerboard truck at the Pearl Street exit to give motorists a chance to get off there.

But the closest IRT unit had to come from Olympia.

The ramp re-opened roughly 20 minutes after the IRT unit was asked to respond. The IRT unit was advised to disregard, so they never made it to the scene.

“Someone should have heard there was an event, and the front-line people should have heard about it,” Cook said. “When I worked in IT if there is an event impacting customers, we hear about it, and we let the front-line people know when the calls come in so they can support people.”

As it turned out, Cook will get his money back. After he got the brushoff the first time, he said, someone called him back later and told him he could apply for a refund using a back-office channel.

“The key to getting your refund or toll fee waived is your trip has to coincide with the event that occurred,” Hernandez said. “It was only about an hour or so that the exit was blocked, so it has to be during that window.”

Takers can’t waive tolls

Typically, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge does not waive tolls, the WSDOT spokesperson said.

“The only thing we can waive is if law enforcement closes the last exit before the toll, then we can waive the fees, but they need to call customer service,” Hernandez said. “We are picky about why we charge tolls, and it’s because we have obligations to our bonds to fund the toll facilities, and we need to pay those.”

Workers can’t just wave people through at the toll plaza, she said.

“All our other ones are electronically tolled,” Hernandez said. “That’s why we have it that you go through customer service, because our other toll booths there isn’t another option.

Besides the Narrows Bridge, WSDOT collects tolls on the Evergreen Point floating bridge and the SR 99 tunnel in Seattle, and on car pool lanes on portions of I-405.

The operators can’t independently wave people through, its outside their realm of responsibility,” she added. “It could be someone who says they forgot their wallet or had a bad day, so we don’t give toll workers the ability to wave people through.”

Hernandez encourages people to keep their receipts if an incident such as this occurs again, giving them the opportunity to verify their toll took place at the same time as the incident.

Cook is still waiting to get his $6 back. The process will take 30 days, he was told.

This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 12:00 AM.