Group fights Tacoma toll bridge

OLYMPIA — Even as work proceeds on the second Tacoma Narrows bridge, opponents of the tolls that will pay for the project continued their battle before the state Supreme Court.

Attorney Shawn Newman, who represents Citizens Against Tolls, told the justices Thursday that the project violates competitive bidding laws.

The bridge is the last surviving element of a plan to build massive public works projects through public-private partnerships that were largely exempt from the bidding laws.

But Newman argued that exemption went away when the Legislature altered the project to pay for it with public money instead of letting a private company raise the money and collect the tolls.

"The whole paradigm has changed here," Newman said. "Then it was private money, now it’s public money. We’re talking about a $600 million-plus contract, and there are no rules."

The state argued that the current agreement with the partnership known as Tacoma Narrows Constructors to design and build the bridge is simply an adjustment to the original agreement with United Infrastructure Washington, a somewhat different partnership.

"This is the same proposal," said Assistant Attorney General Deborah Cade. "United Infrastructure’s contract was not terminated, it was amended."

The lawsuit — which failed in the lower courts — could be the last gasp against the bridge by an angry group of Kitsap Peninsula residents. The plan would send traffic westbound on one bridge and eastbound on the other, forcing commuters to pay a toll for the round trip.

Work crews have been crawling over the Tacoma Narrows for most of the summer.

"They’re pouring concrete," said Justice Charles Johnson, who lives across the bridge in Gig Harbor. "If we agree with you, what happens?"

The court’s ruling could be months away. The case is State ex rel. Citizens Against Tolls, No. 73745-2.