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Amendment targets tolls on I-405
By LARRY LANGE, SPECIAL TO SEATTLEPI.COM
Published 06:08 p.m., Tuesday, April 5, 2011
A controversial measure to toll part of Interstate 405 faces amendments in the state Senate aimed at satisfying skeptics – including a proposal that toll lanes be abandoned if they didn't help traffic or pay expenses.
The Senate Transportation Committee has proposed amending House Bill 1382 to require closing the lanes if they don't maintain speeds of at least 45 mph 90 percent of the time.
The amendment, approved in a 14-2 committee vote, also would require closure of the lanes "as soon as practicable" after two years if they don't generate "sufficient revenue to pay for all...toll-lane related operating expense," according to the amendment.
The changes reflects Senate committee members' desire to "make sure it's viable...that it actually will generate the amount of money they say it will," said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, who chairs the committee.
The state has estimated that it would cost $388 million to add the lanes between Lynnwood and Bellevue. Equipping them would cost $67 million, while annual operating costs have been estimated at $8.75 million annually.
The state Office of Fiscal Management has estimated that the lanes, located on one of the region's most crowded and congested freeways, would be profitable for at least the first six years of its operation.
But critics have noted that similar, experimental high-occupancy toll or "HOT" lanes on Highway 167 have not paid their way financially, though state transportation officials have said they've improved traffic flow and speeds between Auburn and Renton.
The proposal in the House measure is to set up similar lanes on I-405, but the idea met substantial opposition from House Republicans, who tried to gut the bill before it passed on a largely party-line vote.
Haugen said that, with the Senate amendment, she expects the bill to pass with bipartisan support in that chamber. "We worked really hard to reach a compromise," she said, but . Senators added the shutdown provisions because of the financial experience on 167.
"We were told one thing with 167, and another thing occurred," Haugen said.
In addition to the closure provisions the amendment would require yearly reports from the state Department of Transportation on the effects of the lanes: whether they change transit ridership or average traffic speeds, whether they receive the predicted amount of use by drivers and whether travel times increase or decrease on adjacent local streets and highways. Reports are also to say whether toll receipts are consistent with estimates.
The amended bill is in the Senate Rules Committee. It must be approved by the full Senate and sent back to the House for agreement before it becomes law.
Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island and chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee, said she'll accept the amendments "because it moves the project forward and authorizes tolling" and will add the lanes and needed equipment.
She said the amendments reflect "the angst that we have with all the moving parts on tolling right now rather than a dislike of tolling,. In a year we will have (tolls on) 520, 167 and more info on 405 and everyone will feel better."
She said a more controversial point could be the amended bill's provision directing toll receipts for deposit in the state Motor Vehicle Fund, which commits them solely to highway projects. This will require another change in order to use some of the money for transit; that won't kill the measure now "but it will cause some heartburn," she said.
State officials have imposed to pay for new bridges for several decades. They're now moving toward charging them on highway lanes to help improve traffic flow and pay for and maintain new projects as declining gas tax revenues have been committed to paying off earlier highway projects.
HOT lanes charge solo drivers for the privilege of driving in carpool lanes, using an electronic system of varying tolls like the one on Highway 167. If lawmakers approve, a similar system could be in place on I-405 by 2014.