By Susanna Ray
Herald Writer
OLYMPIA — Snohomish County officials plan to unveil a major transportation agenda in the state capital today with a push for road improvements on highways in a congested area running from Mountlake Terrace to Marysville along I-5 and Highway 9.
They’re calling it the "I-5 Snohomish Corridor Action Plan," or SnoCAP, and they hope that a focused list of road projects with a catchy slogan will grab more attention from state lawmakers when they divvy up transportation money.
"It’s an identity for us that can compete, if you will, for the hearts, minds and most importantly the wallets of the people that count" in Olympia, said Peter Hahn, Snohomish County Public Works director.
The Seattle-Everett area has the second-worst traffic congestion in the country, but projects on Highway 520, the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle and I-405 on the Eastside seem to have a lot more prominence among state legislators, local officials say.
They’re worried Snohomish County will get left behind because its projects aren’t as big and showy, for one thing, and because there are so many smaller improvements that need to be made, rather than one specific project.
So after expressing those concerns in an October meeting with Doug MacDonald, the state’s new transportation secretary, the Department of Transportation began working with the county and Everett to put together the SnoCAP package.
MacDonald, who got stuck in traffic and was late to that meeting, promised to put his best and brightest to work on the project, Hahn said.
MacDonald and local officials, such as County Executive Bob Drewel, plan to formally unveil the package today in a noon meeting with the Snohomish County state delegation. The brochure will be sent to legislators, business groups, public agencies and news media.
Area ports took a similar tactic a few years ago when they successfully pooled their project wish lists into one request they named the "Fast Corridor."
The SnoCAP brochure lists projects that transportation experts think will help ease crippling congestion along I-5 and Highway 9, and the "primary investment corridors" that connect them: Highways 2, 96, 204, 524 and 528 and 529.
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