Tolls are coming, lawmakers say

Published 11:04 pm Thursday, January 17, 2008

OLYMPIA — Washington has a long tradition of free highways, but the state will increasingly turn to tolls to pay for expensive bridges and selected road projects, lawmakers predict.

The state House and Senate transportation panels heard favorable reaction Thursday to legislation spelling out a tolling policy that could benefit future projects, including a new $4 billion floating bridge for Lake Washington.

The 2008 legislation doesn’t authorize tolls for any particular project, but anticipates that future legislatures would vote on each toll project as it’s ready to go. The state Transportation Commission would propose the level of the tolls.

“There’s no question, it’s the wave of the future,” said Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island. “We need a different way to raise revenue to help build some of these major, major projects.”

The Legislature is expected to pass the bill crafted by House Transportation Chairwoman Judy Clibborn, D-Camano Island, and the Gregoire administration.

For most of statehood, the state-collected gasoline tax, now 36 cents a gallon, and federal dollars have paid for construction and maintenance of the roads, ferries and bridges. Recently approved taxes and bond sales are expected to raise about $11 billion over 16 years to finance more than 400 projects.

But Gov. Chris Gregoire and the state Legislature have signaled that the state will have to turn to tolls as a way to help finance ultra-expensive “mega-projects,” most notably in the heavily congested central Puget Sound region.

Two projects already are ushering in that long-resisted notion: the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a toll span and an “HOT” lane will open this spring on nine miles of state Route 167 between Auburn and Renton. The “high occupancy toll” will allow solo drivers to buy their way into the carpool lane.

Now the governor, backed by state and local leaders, is asking the Legislature to approve the most dramatic foray into tolling — financing half of the Highway 520 Evergreen Point Bridge replacement cost with tolls.

Improvements on I-405 and I-90 and a new Columbia River bridge at Vancouver also could carry tolls. Other financing, including some federal dollars, local taxes and state gas tax dollars, would be expected as well.

The Senate and House transportation committees held back-to-back hearings Thursday, drawing strong endorsement for the plan from the state and King County transportation agencies and other witnesses.

They said tolls can generate needed dollars as the gas tax dwindles due to fuel efficiency and alternative ways of powering vehicles.

They also touted tolls as a way to manage the flow of traffic through “congestion pricing.” This involves charging varying amounts for toll facilities, including express lanes, with cheaper tolls during off-peak hours. Tolls would also cause some travelers to use mass transit, they said, and HOT lanes would lead to more efficient use of existing roads.

Toll facilities and HOT lanes are operating successfully in the U.S. and around the world, said Craig Stone of the state’s Urban Corridors Office.

“Folks have accepted and warmed to the idea of tolling, the idea of charging some kind of user fee,” state Transportation Department spokesman Lloyd Brown said. A report done for the Transportation Commission in 2005 showed general support, as long as the toll is directly linked to improvements.

The report says tolls in the greater Seattle area could bring in $253 million to $458 million a year. That assumes tolls on all lanes of I-5 from the I-405 interchange in Tukwila south to the Pierce County line, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, a 12-mile stretch of State Route 509, all lanes on I-405 for its entire 30-mile length, 13 miles of I-90 from Seattle to the Eastside suburbs, and state Route 167.