Millions for U.S. 2 and I-5 barriers in Senate budget

Published 11:29 pm Monday, February 25, 2008

OLYMPIA — State senators on Monday revealed a transportation budget that aims to pay for building new ferries, replacing ineffective I-5 cable barriers near Marysville and improving U.S. 2.

The Senate budget aims to add six Washington State Patrol troopers to U.S. 2 to improve safety along the highway on which 47 people have died in accidents over the last nine years. The change will be made by taking troopers from other areas or assigning new troopers who have been included in the existing two-year budget.

Those additional troopers will be found from the state’s existing work force.

“Troopers on a road make a difference,” said Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, who helped put together the $7.5 billion transportation budget.

The Senate bill also proposes to spend $9 million adding a new mile-long passing lane along U.S. 2 west of Sultan and grinding centerline rumble strips on the highway between east of Monroe and Stevens Pass.

Those projects are included in the House transportation budget, which was introduced last week. They aim to reduce accidents — especially crossover crashes — along the highway, state officials said. On Saturday, a 10-year-old Marysville boy was seriously injured in a crossover crash along the highway near Stevens Pass.

“Everybody recognizes that’s a safety corridor, which needs to be addressed,” Haugen said.

Still, the money included in the budget is less than 1 percent of the $2 billion worth of projects that a study released last year identified for U.S. 2.

The Senate budget includes $85 million to replace the Steel Electric-class ferries that were pulled off the Keystone-to-Port Townsend route in November because of safety concerns about their 80-year-old hulls. It also sets aside $283 million to build three new car ferries that will carry 144 vehicles each.

The budget calls for $27 million to replace cable barriers with concrete barriers along a stretch of I-5 in Marysville. Since 2000, eight people have died in cross-median crashes along I-5 in the area. State engineers last year concluded the cable barriers at this location are not performing as designed.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate are now trying to reconcile their spending plans for transportation projects.

Once each chamber passes its version of the transportation budget, key Democratic and Republican lawmakers from both chambers will combine the two budgets and create a final budget.

Haugen said that the money for the ferries, I-5 concrete barriers and U.S. 2 is likely to stay in the final bill.

Adding the new passing lane on U.S. 2 is a good step, Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, said. The $5 million project is being planned for a segment of the highway where some crossover crashes have left people injured, but unlike other stretches of the highway, have not resulted in deaths in recent years.

“It concerns me a little bit,” Kristiansen said.

Overall improvements for U.S. 2 need about $2 billion. The highway needs more money, but additional troopers could help drivers change their driving behavior, Haugen said.

“There’s not a whole lot of additional dollars,” she said.

Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.