Getting 75,000 NASCAR fans out of Marysville after a race would cost $85 million, a bill that apparently would be sent to an already wary Legislature.
The money would pay for rebuilding interchanges on I-5 and on surrounding roads to allow 20,000 cars and buses to flow out of the Smokey Point area within 21/2 hours after the checkered flag falls.
The $85 million comes on top of the $200 million International Speedway Corp. has already asked the Legislature to pay to help it build the actual racetrack. ISC would chip in about $50 million.
The track proposal includes a deal for much of the public’s contribution to be paid back through sales taxes generated by race fans.
When Marysville and Snohomish County initially pitched the idea of building a NASCAR track in north Marysville, estimates were that it would cost $50 million to get race fans in and out of the Smokey Point area.
The new $85 million figure comes from a $30,000 traffic study released by the city of Marysville on Friday.
“We knew that the No. 1 issue was going to be transportation,” said Mary Swenson, the city’s chief administrative officer. “Doing the study made sense.”
The $85 million price tag is not necessarily a deal killer, said state Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, who is on the House Transportation Committee. But unless ISC chips in more than $50 million, it makes it tough, he said.
“When I shop it around to legislators, it’s not a good feeling,” Sullivan said.
The tallest hurdle might be Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, who, if absentee counts hold, will be the new chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee. Haugen opposes using public funding for the NASCAR track.
The $85 million transportation tab includes the $17 million it will cost to build a new Highway 529 bridge over Ebey Slough. That project has already been funded, but NASCAR backers would have to move it up a few years ahead of the project’s current 2010 start date.
Put together by Perteet Inc. of Everett, the transportation report says more than $800 million in improvements are needed to manage traffic in north Snohomish County, but makes it clear that only $85 million needs to be found to handle race-day traffic.
All but $8 million of the improvements would be needed even if a racetrack is not built, said Paul Roberts, the lead for Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon’s bid to bring a NASCAR track to Marysville.
“It’s a fair amount of money to put on the table in this corridor for something that is long overdue,” Roberts said.
Chief among those improvements is the need to finish rebuilding the I-5 interchange on 172nd Street NE.
Work is under way to build a new bridge and expand traffic to four lanes, but another $18 million – mainly to add a cloverleaf ramp for southbound traffic – would be needed for NASCAR traffic.
Down the freeway about a mile, the long-discussed I-5 interchange at 136th Street NE would finally be built – sort of. The plan calls for spending $5 million to design an eventual interchange at the location, while building temporary ramps on the northbound side of the freeway. That would allow northbound traffic to get to and leave the NASCAR track.
Perteet’s plan also calls for widening the shoulder on 116th Street NE near I-5, something that would allow traffic police to squeeze an additional temporary lane in at the exit when a race lets out. The eventual goal is to rebuild the entire interchange.
Other improvements would include a number of more localized road projects on the roads around the NASCAR site, such as building a station for a Sound Transit commuter train.
Still, all the transportation improvements would rely on parking as many as 4,000 cars at lots in Everett and Monroe, then busing those people to the site, said Michael Stringham, a senior associate at Perteet.
Using park-and-ride lots would take pressure off the main traffic choke point at the NASCAR site, I-5 at the Snohomish River. After the state finishes widening I-5 to five lanes in Everett, I-5 will shrink to three lanes at the Snohomish River.
That won’t have a severe impact, because it will only be a problem for traffic heading to a race. However, fans are expected to gradually arrive over six hours on race day, Stringham said.
When told of the study, opponents of the track questioned its priorities.
“I’m kind of at a loss,” said Carla Brown of Snohomish County Citizens Against a Racetrack, or SCAR. “If it comes, then you want as much infrastructure as you can get.”
But she doesn’t want the track in her neighborhood, and she questioned whether spending so much on roads for just three major race weekends a year would be fair to others in the state.
“I just don’t think that’s a wise use,” Brown said.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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