Design concept for a new bridge over Portage Bay
By Ryan Packer
As work in Montlake to create a new boulevard and park space on top of a new highway lid continues, state lawmakers will need to act relatively soon to keep the rest of the 520 bridge replacement project on track. The designs for a new Portage Bay Bridge and second lid at Roanoke are moving forward, but as of now, they aren’t fully funded. The budget proposal that Governor Jay Inslee released in advance of the January start of the legislative session includes a $400 million allocation to the 520 “West End” projects, an amount that should enable nearly all elements of the project to be completed, according to the latest cost estimates.
But those estimates have climbed.
What caused the cost increases? Following a final community outreach process in 2019, WSDOT made a number of changes to the design of the Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid from the original environmental assessment in 2011. The biggest change was the addition of a shared use path on the south end of the bridge that will more fully connect people walking and rolling from North Capitol Hill across the lake.
A number of other walking and biking connections around the Roanoke lid, including wider, separated spaces for people biking are now included. We covered more details on the planned Roanoke lid and its connections to the rest of Capitol Hill last year.
Combined with cost escalations due to the project’s overall timeline being delayed, and increased costs right now that are impacting nearly every transportation project in the state, those changes all add up to the gap that Inslee’s budget is seeking to fill, partly using funds from the federal infrastructure bill that President Biden signed into law in November.
The current timeline for construction on the Portage Bay segments is a 2024 start date, with six years until completion. Omar Jepperson, WSDOT Program Administrator with the 520 project, confirmed that the funding would keep the project on schedule.
“While we still need legislative approval to move forward with Governor Inslee’s budget proposal, we’re pleased to see such strong support for the SR 520 Program and other Puget Sound Region Megaprograms,” Jepperson said. “We look forward to working with the Governor’s Office and Legislature to identify next steps for delivery and support the legislative process moving forward,” he wrote.
Work in Montlake, meanwhile, is on track to wrap up by 2023.
Also expected to be open by 2023 are new express lanes that will be utilized by public transit, connecting the 520 bridge to the I-5 exit at Mercer Street. That $68 million project is also part of the overall 520 program.
Seattle has said it doesn’t want twin Montlake Bridges
A full funding gap for 520 of $600 million also includes the construction of a second bascule bridge right next to the existing Montlake Bridge. But that project isn’t supported by the City of Seattle, and doesn’t appear to have much support among state legislators either.
A 2015 Seattle City Council resolution stated that a second bridge would not be in the best interests of the city. State Senator Jamie Pedersen, who has been dealing with issues around 520 projects for nearly his entire time in Olympia, has been outspoken about the fact that he thinks a second bridge can be scrapped. It looks like the second bridge concept may finally be dead.
Not far from this project, WSDOT has been forced to close two parks on either side of the I-5 Lake Washington Ship Canal bridge due to pieces of falling concrete. Statewide, WSDOT faces a maintenance and preservation deficit of approximately $1 billion per year, according to transportation secretary Roger Millar, with that number only expected to grow if it isn’t addressed. Inslee’s budget only allocated $80 million out of $289 million from the federal infrastructure bill toward preservation of current infrastructure.
During 2022’s short legislative session, discussions are expected to continue on assembling a larger, multi-year transportation package. Most of the funding for the 520 bridge came from a similar package passed in 2015, so, first, lawmakers will have to decide to prioritize scarce transportation dollars to finish the projects they’ve already started.
PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
This is great… I hope the State would come to the rescue or at least force City of Seattle to pave its city streets better though.
If you drive around Seattle, you (and your car) just want to cry. i am sure hundreds of cars’ suspension broke every year because the streets with cracks and potholes are too much to handle.
You see potholes, I see inverted speed bumps.
i hope they have a plan to pay for it all – traffic must be at a record low on 520. It’s basically a bridge to Microsoft and Amazon at the cities expense.