Tacoma Wins Big on Transportation Stimulus
Tacoma could receive nearly $100 million in transportation stimulus funding. WSDOT has awarded the Tacoma HOV program $70 million – the largest chunk of the stimulus funding for any transportation project in the state. WSDOT is planning to use most of this money on the Port of Tacoma to King County Line HOV project. By using the stimulus money for that project, additional funds will be freed up to begin the Eastbound Nalley Valley project at its originally planned date in 2011, instead of being deferred to 2013 in Governor Gregoire’s budget. (You know, Nalley Valley. That part of SR 16 they just tore down?)
Not only that, the Puget Sound Regional Council is also receiving some transportation stimulus funding for road and transit projects. On the road side, the PSRC is nearly ready to distribute about $16 million to the Lincoln Ave Grade Separation project in the Port of Tacoma, which has long been a regionally desired freight improvement project. For transit, the PSRC is about to give Pierce Transit and Sound Transit some stiumuls money for projects in Tacoma. Pierce transit could receive over $10 million of which over $5 million would be used to buy some more buses. Sound Transit would get about $4.5 million for starting construction on the Lakewood-Tacoma Commuter Rail.
Want to show support? There is a public comment meeting tonight at the Pierce County Annex public meeting room, 2401 S. 35th St., at 6:30pm. Then on this Thursday, March 12 the PSRC will finalize its decision. A list and map of the region wide projects that the PSRC is recommending can be found here for the road portion and here for the transit portion.
A list of all of the state-wide stimulus projects can be found here.
Filed under: Port of Tacoma
12 comments
M MattMike March 10, 2009
Wow – absolutely none of those projects are exciting.
R RR Anderson March 10, 2009
yeah. Lakewood? Lakenothankyou.
T tacoma1 March 10, 2009
OK, I’ll cheer for the cash. None of these projects are sexy, but they are definitely needed, and it’s great that Pierce County is getting the federal funds.
D dolly varden March 10, 2009
I-5 HOV lanes to downtown Tacoma are pretty darned exciting for those of us who don’t like having the Seattle-Tacoma express bus come to a halt at the Fife curve.
T Thorax O'Tool March 10, 2009
As one who lives close to downtown and works in the Port, I for one am glad to see some $$$ head this way. If you think the roads are bad in residential areas, try driving in the port on any road other than SR 509 and Port of Tacoma Road. Lincoln is awful, and Portland is a nightmare within a nightmare.
And I’m quite frankly amazed that our bonehead politicians didn’t give 80% of the monies to pet projects in Seattle and Bellevue.
…speak of, how long till King County takes this to court demanding their “fair share”?
N Nick March 10, 2009
So let me do the math:
70M Freeway HOV
10M Pierce Transit
4.5M Sound Transit
———————————
84M Total
That means a projected 82.8% of stimulus funds for the Tacoma region will go straight to roads and car-based transportation. And 17.2% of that money will go towards public transportation.
Does anyone else feel like this is a missed opportunity for our public transit systems? I know the money has been pre-budgeted for specific departments, but can you imagine what kind of light rail network and public bus system we could have with $100M of investment? Even half that would produce some pretty incredible results. Instead we’re going to get 3 or 4 miles of carpool lane, some repaved roads, and an already planned project finished a couple years early.
Don’t get me wrong, I know how much our roads need improvement (especially in the port), but are we really maximizing the “benefit-to-cost” ratio with the current arrangement?
N Nick March 10, 2009
…. oops, missed that $16M for the port, so that means 84% roads and 16% public transit.
T Thorax O'Tool March 11, 2009
Under normal circumstances, I’d say go for the streetcar. But given how badly our road infrastructure is getting, some of this stuff has got to be taken care of ASAP before a pothole the size of a gas tanker shows up and consumes said tanker. We can’t expect companies to want to do business in the port if they’re replacing tires and fixing the suspension on their rigs constantly.
It’s shameful that our Fearless Leaders in their lofty offices at 747 Market have let our roads get this bad. Really, it is embarrassing (in addition to everything else that is wrong about the situation).
But there is no reason why we can’t get our rails from the next Stimulus Plan that DC will pass in 9-12 months.
D Douglas Tooley March 11, 2009
Still, the Pacific to Port of Tacoma I-5 HOV segment remains unfunded – placing the burden of overspending on Tacoma/Pierce in order to preserve the 2.4 billion committment for the viaduct replacement in Seattle.
Last should not mean least and we need to make sure this segment of road is the best – a direct HOV ramp to Freighthouse Square, coordinated planning for Light Rail including a flyover from Hwy 99 to the EQC and First Creek/Portland (perhaps sharing the HOV ramp to Freighthouse, as per Seattle Tunnel Specs), Bus Rapid Transit to points S, W, and N (again, including joint operation with the Link right of way) and a network of trails including the Puyallup River to Prairie Line connection and the Mount Rainier rail trail.
Let’s work to make sure Nick’s assertion about this being all weighted towards cars proves wrong – I hope that won’t upset him!
J Jesse March 11, 2009
$70m for an HOV lane? Really? I hope it comes with a lot more than just painted diamonds and signs. Seems excessive.
J Jim C March 11, 2009
Hopefully the county-line HOV project includes doing something (extending?) about that right-most lane that mysteriously ends right at the county line when traveling southbound. I think that bit of “engineering by omission” does more to contribute to the nightly commute-time backups than the lack of an HOV lane.
J J. Cote March 11, 2009
Say, Nick, you also missed the enormous Bond issue that was passed last year by the voters that was 100% for transit. Our State Sales Tax will go up 0.5% in May to fund Transit programs. Not one penny for roads.