OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday that Seattle’s upcoming vote on replacing the quake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct will be flawed and without credibility, but rejected GOP calls to shift billions of dollars in state financing to other mega-projects.
House Transportation Chairwoman Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, said the March 13 advisory vote will be largely irrelevant as Olympia moves inexorably to approve a rebuild of the elevated highway along Seattle’s downtown waterfront. That would cost about $2.8 billion, most already approved by the Legislature.
Seattle leaders prefer a tunnel, with a pricetag of $3.4 billion – a scaled-backed version of a $4.6 billion, six-lane tunnel the city had promoted until recently.
Gregoire acknowledged the passion of some Seattle leaders for the tunnel, but said, “We need to be fiscally responsible to the taxpayer. I’d also prefer a Mercedes, but I can’t afford that, either.”
Neither she nor Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, were willing to flatly declare the tunnel option dead, although many House Democrats have.
“I don’t see the tunnel as an option,” Clibborn said. “So the elevated proposal is all that is left. I didn’t even have a hearing on the tunnel option.”
Gregoire and key legislators said the revised tunnel plan hasn’t been studied by experts enough to make sure the pricetag and other details are valid.
The governor was biting in her comments Monday about Seattle’s handling of the vote, and said it’s no wonder that some lawmakers are lusting after the billions in viaduct money to use on other projects.
“You know, I tried to warn Seattle,” she told a news conference. “I tried to tell them while you’re indecisive and rethinking and asking for extensions of time, the fact of the matter is that every legislator outside of Seattle is looking at that money and saying, ‘We’re ready to spend it and not debate about it. Our projects are ready.’”
Republican transportation leaders in the House and Senate said Monday that while the viaduct question is being sorted out, the money should be redirected to projects where initial phases are ready to go, such as a new Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington and expansion of Interstate 405 in the suburbs east of Seattle.
Gregoire said the Seattle advisory vote won’t add much light to the Olympia debate, but that she expects lawmakers to pick a design before they adjourn April 22.
Gregoire said Seattle has done a disservice to voters by providing inadequate information and by not offering two clear design options.
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