OLYMPIA — A lack of funds is driving the state to rethink its approach for installing 10 miles of concrete barriers along a deadly section of I-5 in Marysville.

As design work proceeds on the estimated $27 million project, Gov. Chris Gregoire also wants the Department of Transportation to come up with less costly means of making that stretch safer for drivers.

“The idea of doing $27 million for the cable barrier project north of Everett is the perfect. While I’d love to do perfect right now, I really don’t have the money to do perfect,” she said this week.

She said she asked DOT for a range of alternatives so she knows “how much do I really need, to ensure safety.”

That information along with detailed costs for the concrete barriers should be in her hands by November when she fashions her 2008 supplemental transportation budget request for the Legislature.

Paula Hammond, the state’s interim Secretary of Transportation, said Tuesday she will prepare a “hierarchy of options and costs” for the governor and lawmakers to consider.

When asked if one alternative would be putting in fewer miles of concrete barriers, she said, “I can’t tell you right now what we’re going to propose.”

In June, a national traffic safety expert recommended concrete barriers replace cable barriers on a 10-mile section of I-5 where eight people have died in cross-median crashes since 2000.

The switch would occur on the northbound side; the cable in place on the southbound lane would remain.

The death in February of Clifford Warren of Everett spurred Gregoire to order the expert’s review of the state’s cable barrier program.

In July, she and former transportation secretary Doug MacDonald embraced the recommendation with its estimated $27 million price tag.

Since then, coming up with the full sum has been an unresolved issue.

Washington’s transportation budget is financed with gas tax revenues, not the general fund used to pay for the rest of government’s day-to-day operation.

The funds in the current two-year transportation spending plan are all earmarked for specific projects. To free up any money, the governor and the Legislature would need to take the politically unpopular step of delaying a project somewhere else in the state.

“We acknowledge it is going to be a real stretch for the Legislature to find the money to do it,” Hammond said.

The department did free up $500,000 to start design work.

Crews on Monday began digging holes in the I-5 median to learn about the soil’s absorption rates. They are continuing a process begun in July to understand the effects on the environment of installing new barriers.

The handling of stormwater runoff is a key concern. Part of the project would involve widening the shoulder of the northbound lane. This new paving would lead to greater volumes of runoff needing a place to flow.

Soil sampling will be done through the next four weeks, said Russ East, assistant regional administrator for the DOT in King and Snohomish counties.

Information gathered aids the design and helps refine the estimated cost, he said.

Even if full funding becomes available next year, barrier installation would not start until 2009, Hammond and East said.

The Senate and House transportation committees will answer the funding question.

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, leader of the Senate panel, vowed in July to find needed dollars and said she hoped the tab would be less than $27 million.

Haugen was out of town this week.

Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, who leads the House committee, said Wednesday she’s not surprised the DOT is examining less expensive approaches because there is not likely to be any extra money available next year.

Clibborn insisted she and fellow lawmakers understand the community’s concern.

“We’re not going to sacrifice safety,” she said.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.