Free Money or Freeways?

A similar letter similar to the one below to our other representative in the 48th district, Debra Eddy:

Rep. Eddy,

I'm sure you're well aware of the Tacoma News Tribune Article concerning the Senate transportation budget that came out on Wednesday:

http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics/2009/03/25/senate_plan_pays_for_all_i_5_carpool_lan

The tone of this article makes it feel as though Senator Haugen is being boastful in declaring she "elminated almost all railroad projects from the 2009-11 budget." The article goes on to say, "Washington will have to apply for federal funds that have been made available as part of the federal transportation stimulus package... She said there is more than $8 billion set aside for rail nationwide." Can anyone seriously believe stimulus money will flow to Washington without funding at the State level? Rail is much more than passenger service. Washington needs to get its wheat to it's ports to put bread on the table. Senator Haugen seems to have a "let them eat cake" attitude.

The federal money is ostensibly for passenger rail improvements. However, our rail lines are shared right of way with the vast majority of traffic being freight. Therefore freight operations will be the biggest benefactor of the priority projects like the Point Defiance bypass. As the TNT article points out, these rail lines south of Lakewood provide a more direct route for freight trains into the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle. It will also directly benefit military operations at Fort Lewis. While increased passenger rail service may be a luxury we can't afford right now I fear a lack of matching funds will all but eliminate any chance of securing our States fair share of of that $8 billion from the federal government. This is like failing to fund an employer matching retirement account.

Passenger service is the sexy visible part of the Presidents HSR initiative but the heavy lifting will continue to be done by our freight railroads. Amtrak Cascades service has a dismal 65% on time rating. Signaling improvements, new track and modernized train control systems can improve this to 95% in short order if we take advantage of the stimulus money. Integral to this upgrade are huge benefits to the freight trains which operate on this right of way. Currently shipping by rail from Seattle to the midwest is anywhere from 7-12 days and you don't know when you load your goods onto the rail car where in that 5 day window it will arrive. It is this uncertainty, which is why so much freight moves by truck instead of rail. Improved transit time and reliability results in shifting more of our truck traffic to rail. This benefits not only the environment (lower GHG emisions) it saves on the excessive wear truck traffic causes to our roads and makes us more competitive in a global economy.

To put a familiar face on this; Boeing relies on rail to ship fuselages from it's Witchita plant to Renton. Think what a five day delay must cost Boeing in delivery penalties, unproductive workers waiting on parts and then overtime to try and recover their schedule.It would be fiscally irresponsible to not aggresively seek as much of the stimulus money for the Cascades cooridor as possible.

I applaud your efforts to toll both SR520 and I90 (which should be directed to fund R8A). I also believe the same idea must be applied to the deep bore tunnel proposal on SR99. Tolls should be equal to those on SR520 including pre-tolling of the viaduct. Use the money freed up to restore funding for the Rail and Marine division of WSDOT. If drivers are not willing to pay tolls to finance the deep bore tunnel then the only sensible solution in these economic times is a seismic retrofit of the existing structure.


Thank you for taking the time to listen to my concerns and for all of the work you are doing in Olympia.

Budget Bingo

Below is a copy of a letter I sent to Ross Hunter, my legislative representative in the 48th.

Rep. Hunter,

I am writing in response to a Tacoma News Tribune Article concerning the Senate transportation budget that came out on Wednesday:

Senate plan pays for all I-5 carpool lanes through Tacoma

I feel as though Senator Haugen is almost boastful in declaring she "elminated almost all railroad projects from the 2009-11 budget." The article goes on to say, "Washington will have to apply for federal funds that have been made available as part of the federal transportation stimulus package... She said there is more than $8 billion set aside for rail nationwide."

While passenger rail service may be a luxury we can't afford right now I fear that a lack of matching funds will all but eliminate any chance of securing our States fair share of of that $8 billion from the federal government. This is like failing to fund an employer matching retirement account. The State funding of expensive discretionary roads today bankrupts our transportation infrastructure of the future.

The federal money is ostensibly for passenger rail improvements. However, since our rail line from Oregon to British Columbia is shared right of way with freight it is the freight operations which will be the biggest benefactor of the priority projects like the Point Defiance bypass. As the article points out these rail lines south of Lakewood provide a more direct route for freight trains into the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle.It will also directly benefit military operations at Fort Lewis providing a redundancy to the lines that are often closed due to slides along the route that follows the Puget Sound.

Currently Amtrak Cascades service has a 65% on time rating. Signaling improvements and modernized train control systems can improve this to 95% almost immediately if funding is available. The greatest cost which would be funded by the stimulus money is to upgrade the freight trains which share the tracks. Currently shipping by rail from Seattle to the midwest is anywhere from 7-12 days and you don't know when you load your goods onto the rail car when in that 5 day window it will arrive. Boeing relies on this rail system to ship fusalages from it's Witchita plant to Renton. Think what a five day delay must cost Boeing in contract penalties, unproductive workers waiting on parts and then overtime to try and recover their schedule.


I applaud your effort to toll both I90 and SR520. It seems there is also a need to see if people are willing to pay to drive through a $3 billion dollar tunnel under Seattle or if it's only viable when it's a "freebie". Tolls should be equal to those on SR520 and should start by tolling the viaduct. If they are willing to pay tolls then use the money freed up to restore funding for the Rail and Marine division of WSDOT. If not then the only sensible solution for these economic times is a seismic retrofit of the existing structure.

Washington needs to get its wheat to it's ports to put bread on the table. Senator Haugen's seems to have a "let them eat cake" attitude.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my concerns and for the fine work you are doing in Olympia.

New Math, 6+(2)=$8B

In the Seattle Times editorial, Building a bridge between Highway 520 combatants, Joni Balter makes it sound like a 6+(2) alternative has produced a compromise both "sides" (east vs west) can live with. In part she says "It is absurd to build a bridge with the same limited capacity as the existing one... The reasonable compromise is the six-plus plan that has garnered support from almost all sides." Putting aside the fact they're still $tuck on $inking bridge technology from the 1920's this design goal sounds reasonable.

Just a couple of problems. First it seems like the "plan" is to continue with dark of the night construction of the pontoons before design, funding or any EIS is in place. This is on course to build a raft that won't support anything heavier than two additional bicycle lanes. Second, there's no plan in place that would allow anything but bicycles to actually connect with anything on the west side.

If there really is an agreement to accept the 6+(2) design doesn't it make sense that the bridge actually be able to support the addition of light rail (the most stressful case). Otherwise this is nothing but the eastside being hoodwinked into believing this bridge will ever have anything but gridlock from the time it opens to the time it sinks.

When is building a bridge not building a bridge? Answer, when you're the Washington State Legislature. RCW 47.01.408 is the equivalent of telling a contractor to go ahead with pouring the foundation of your house before you decide how big it's going to be or where the doors go. The funny (funny as in fishy not funny ha ha) is that the other provisions of this statute, tolling before construction and using bridge money only for the actual bridge are being totally ignored. I guess when you make the law you don't have to follow the law.

A Compromise, Float the Piers

An article in the Seattle Weekly, Don’t Close the Book on Elliott Bay Bridge provides an interesting alternative that has the advantage of a floating bridge (actually better since it doesn't want to pull it's self apart) but still allows a double deck roadway. Building this first in fresh water without currents and tidal action would be a great debut use of the technology. Washington was innovative when it built the first floating bridge across Lake Washington back in 1940. It's time to restore that "can do" sense of innovation instead of saying it'll never fly.