Magnolia tackles transportation issues

(This article is written by Sarah Storm, Magnolia Voice intern from the University of Washington)

The Magnolia Community Club hosted an informational meeting to present and discuss the upcoming construction projects on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, West and East Mercer Street and the deep-bore tunnel. The community club hosted councilmembers and staff from state and local transportation offices at Catherine Blaine Elementary, to apprise club members and the public on new information and updates regarding the projects.

During a presentation on the timeline and steps of construction for the viaduct replacement, Ron Paananen, a project administrator from the Washington State Department of Transportation, introduced the topic of tolling and how it will be implemented with the new projects.

?The legislature asked us to look at tolling as a way of providing some of the financing for the project,? Paananen said, ?That is they specifically asked us to achieve a goal of tolling to get as much as $400 million for construction. ?

While tolling will help supplement the costs of the bore tunnel and other projects, Paananen and the team from WSDOT are also considering the implication tolling will have on traffic. According to Paananen, reaching the goal of $400 million may prove difficult, as drivers may attempt to circumvent any toll payment by avoiding the tunnel and using other routes through the city, like I-5 or Northeast Fourth Avenue.

WSDOT and the Seattle Department of Transportation plan on establishing a tolling advisory committee to further discuss the situation, but Paananen stressed that the state legislature has the final say on tolling.

?They?ve made it pretty clear their intention that this will be a tolled facility, but they still have some final actions to take in 2012 to actually designate corridors to toll,? Paananen said.

Peter Hahn, director of SDOT, spoke further about the all of the projects timelines to the crowd. One of the more challenging aspects of the many upcoming construction projects, according to Hahn, will be the connection of West Mercer Street. The plans for West Mercer include the possibility of a second eastbound lane to help the flow of traffic, a sidewalk for pedestrians and an improved intersection at West Mercer Place and Elliot Avenue West.

While each of the construction projects will take extended periods of planning and construction, the city, state and the Port of Seattle are working together to ensure that an aspect of the corridor remains open at all times to provide the important connections from the stadiums to Western and Elliot Avenues.

While construction of the deep-bore tunnel is underway, parts of the Alaskan Way Viaduct will remain open for traffic. Once the tunnel opens to the public, than the viaduct will be torn down and a new Alaska Way surface street will be constructed.

King County Council members Larry Phillips addressed outstanding issues of the construction projects that will affect Magnolia among other neighborhoods.

Due to the loss of sales tax revenue as a result of the recession, the lack of funding for transit programs will lead to significant cuts.

?We are going to see over the course of the next several years, unless we can find some sort of authority to back fill this, as much as 6,000 hours of lost service county wide,? Phillips said.

When the forum was open for questions, Phillips and the panel were pressed further to explain the impact of a 600,000-hour service cut to King County transit. The panel tried to frame the scope and scale of such a cut, describing it as parallel to all weekend service being cut. It will ultimately be a cut of approximately 60 percent of the transit service currently encountered in the county, if other solutions or revenue sources cannot be found.

Other questions introduced at the meeting included one by Gene Hoglund, member of the Magnolia Community Club, about the unavoidable potholes on southbound Fifteenth Avenue north of the Ballard Bridge.

?It has huge, two-foot-wide potholes in it. You try to avoid them and you can?t, because there is the bridge and oncoming traffic,? said Hoglund. After attempting to bring the potholes to the city?s attention, Hoglund brought it to the attention of Hahn, director of the SDOT, to find a solution.

While many at the meeting were there to absorb information, Elizabeth Campbell was in attendance to bring to light the other side of the issue.

Campbell, representing Initiative 101 to stop the tunnel and the tolls, is critical of the city council and transportation departments claiming that the deep-bore tunnel is a done deal.

?The thing that drives us [against the tunnel] together is that we think that the [tunnel] project is ill advised financially, environmentally and just from a capacity stand point,? said Campbell.

Campbell cited the Thursday presentation as an example of the projects ill advisement.

?Ron Paananen said tonight that when the tunnel opens it?ll take 87,000 people,? said Campbell, ?but what it says in their EIS really is that maybe 40,000 people would use it, and that?s the capacity of the Ballard Bridge. ?

For Campbell, that seems like city and state officials plan to spend two billion dollars on a transportation structure that does what the Ballard Bridge does.

?Would you pay two billion to replace the Ballard Bridge?? Campbell asked, ?No, you wouldn?t.?

While still mostly in the design and planning stages, the tunnel, viaduct and Mercer Street projects are moving forward. In 2011, upcoming activities for public engagement regarding the projects include a public event in February as well as an event during the summer.