SEATTLE — Drivers commuting over the Evergreen Point Bridge across Lake Washington may get slapped with sticker shock: A state committee is considered up to a $3.80 one-way toll during peak traffic to help pay for a new bridge across one of the state’s most heavily traveled routes.
A study released Wednesday by the 520 Tolling Implementation Committee includes four options to help raise money for a six-lane replacement bridge, estimated to cost between $3.7 billion and $3.9 billion. Final decisions on the bridge design and tolls will be made next year.
Two of the proposed options would place tolls only on the Highway 520 floating bridge — one starting in 2010, the other in 2016 when the replacement bridge is due for completion.
Other options including placing tolls on the I-90 bridge across the lake, although some legislators have raised concerns about a public backlash against tolls on both bridges.
However, the study says none of the proposals to put tolls only on the 520 bridge would bring in enough money to cover the expected cash shortfall for the new bridge.
Lawmakers, who will study the issue in January, estimate between $1.5 billion and $2 billion of the new bridge’s cost could be paid for by tolls.
The earliest a toll could be in place is 2010. The new bridge is planned to be in place by 2014 with the entire project, including shoreside improvements, completed in 2016.
Tolls would be collected electronically, in part using vehicle transponder technology similar to that now used on the new Tacoma Narrows bridge, where car drivers pay up to $4 a crossing.
The four options:
Tolls in 2016 only on Highway 520 when the new bridge and adjacent road segments are completed. Morning rush hour tolls would be $3.05 one-way with lower tolls ranging to 90 cents overnight, raising an estimated $835 million. Tolls would be 40 cents to 80 cents each way on road segments from the bridge to I-5 and Bellevue, but would not be part of a toll to completely cross Lake Washington.
Tolls on Highway 520 in 2010 and on I-90 in 2016. This would raise an estimated $2.5 billion, with peak-hour one-way tolls of $2.60 in the morning, $3.25 in the evening. Landside segment toll would be 40 cents to 75 cents.
Tolls on both bridges in 2016, raising an estimated $2.3 billion. Peak tolls of $2.60 in the morning and $3.25 in the evening, and 40- to 75-cent landside segment tolls.
Tolls on the current Highway 520 bridge in 2010, raising an estimated $900 million. Peak-hour tolls would be $2.15 in the morning and $2.95 in the evening, and 75 cents overnight after 2016. Analysts didn’t include landside segment tolls in this proposal.
The committee is taking public comments through Aug. 31.
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