OLYMPIA — Snohomish County’s legislative delegation has found a way to make sure a $239 million plan to widen I-5 in Everett will be finished by 2010, in time for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.

Although not final until the Legislature adopts a new budget in the coming weeks, the plan to move up the start date for construction from 2008 to 2006 is now considered a sure thing because it has been added to both the Senate and House transportation budgets.

"I worked really hard to get this moved up," said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee.

"It’s an easy one to push because (I-5 in Everett) is one of the most hazardous places in the Puget Sound" region, she said. "If you get in the (carpool) lane, you can travel all the way from Federal Way to Everett — then you hit the wall."

Having the road ripped up while travelers are using the highway to get to Vancouver could hurt the regional economy. The region is expected to reap a $250 million windfall from having the Olympics "in our back yard," Haugen said.

Funded by the 5-cent-per-gallon gas tax the Legislature approved in 2003, the Everett I-5 project will add a carpool lane from the Boeing freeway north to U.S. 2 and an all-purpose lane from 41st Street SE to U.S. 2. The work will be done on both northbound and southbound lanes.

If the new plan is approved, the state Department of Transportation will save time by having contractors design as they go, which means construction could start in 2006 and finish in 2009 rather than start in 2008 and finish in 2012.

Initially, Haugen and others from Snohomish County had trouble persuading fellow legislators to move the project up, but that changed Wednesday when Transportation Department officials said they could do it without delaying other road projects statewide.

The Senate Transportation Committee included the change in its supplemental budget, which will be released this morning. A vote on the plan is expected next week. The House issued its transportation budget Tuesday, and members will vote on it Friday. Lawmakers say they intend to iron out differences in the two versions by the scheduled end of the session on March 11.

The chairmen of the two transportation committees, Sen. Jim Horn, R-Mercer Island, and Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, said they supported the shift only after the Transportation Department confirmed that other projects wouldn’t be delayed.

Reps. Mike Cooper, D-Edmonds, and Dan Kristiansen, R-Monroe, both members of the Transportation Committee, said they didn’t want to hurt other parts of the state.

Both lawmakers said the change will survive any sparring between the two houses.

"I don’t know of anybody personally trying to slow this particular aspect of the budget down," Kristiansen said.

County Executive Aaron Reardon, Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson and state Rep. David Simpson, D-Everett, are among those who said I-5 must be widened sooner rather than later.

"We’re elated," Stephanson said. "We have a world-class event coming to our backyard with the Olympics in 2010. We can’t welcome our visitors with a bunch of orange cones."

Local officials also wanted to push up the Everett I-5 timetable because it would help the region follow through on a promise to the Boeing Co. to expedite the widening — part of the state’s incentive package to get the company to assemble its 7E7 jets in Everett.

Fixing the only interstate highway to north Snohomish County also can’t hurt the county’s bid to draw a NASCAR racetrack here either, local officials added.

Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.