SEATTLE – President Bush’s new transportation secretary heartily endorsed a Seattle-area light-rail project seeking $750 million in federal grants Monday.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ready to take over a committee controlling billions in federal spending, welcomed the help and pledged to seek more money for transportation fixes across the state.
“I certainly will be doing everything I can at the federal level, within very tight budgets, to be able to assist our state,” Murray said at a news conference, flanked by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.
Murray is expected to lead the Senate’s transportation spending subcommittee when the new session of Congress begins in January. She also was elected to the No. 4 position in the new Senate Democratic leadership.
Among the top home-state projects vying for her attention is a proposal to extend Sound Transit’s light-rail line from downtown Seattle to the University of Washington.
On Monday, Murray and Peters joined Sound Transit leaders in concrete tunnels beneath the city, at the spot where the agency hopes to finish the “University Link” tunnel. Work could begin in late 2008.
Peters said she was impressed by the project, and announced that Sound Transit has earned federal permission to complete the new tunnel design and negotiate for federal grants to bankroll the project.
“I look forward to seeing it completed very soon,” Peters said.
Sound Transit is seeking $750 million from the Federal Transit Administration – enough to pay for nearly half of the downtown-to-UW rail line. The remaining $895 million would come from Sound Transit’s voter-approved taxes.
Next month, Gov. Chris Gregoire will also decide the fate of two more huge transportation fixes in the Seattle area: the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct and Highway 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington.
The viaduct, vulnerable to collapse in a major earthquake, carries an estimated 100,000 vehicles daily. It is to be replaced by either a tunnel or new elevated highway.
The Legislature has set aside about $2.5 billion, roughly enough for a rebuild. A tunnel could cost an additional $1 billion.
Some top legislative leaders have made it clear that state money was approved only for the rebuild. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and other powerful lawmakers, however, are pursuing a tunnel.
On Monday, Murray said state officials should not assume there will be more than the $225 million in federal money already set aside to help replace the viaduct. “That (figure) is what the state and the region has to focus on,” she said.
There has been less argument so far over how to replace the storm-battered Highway 520 bridge, one of two floating bridges linking Seattle with its eastern suburbs. The span carries about 115,000 vehicles daily.
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