SEATTLE — Drivers who use the Interstate 90 Bridge to avoid paying tolls to cross Lake Washington might want to start saving up.
On Friday, state transportation officials said they don’t have the money right now to finish building the new State Route 520 Bridge span, so tolling I-90 might be part of the solution.
James Barr lives in Burien, but crosses Lake Washington regularly. He said he avoids tolls on the SR 520 Bridge even when it would be quicker than I-90.
“I’d just take the 90. I don’t believe in that tolling,” he said.
But sometime town the road, he may not have that choice.
“Tolling I-90 is on the table,” WSDOT representative Julie Meredith said Friday.
She and architect Donald McDonald briefed the media on three different designs for the bridge needed to cross Portage Bay; that’s just part of the western end of the new 520 Bridge project.
“Our financing isn’t complete,” she said.
In fact, there’s currently no financing for the western end of the bridge. To come up with the needed $2.2 billion, WSDOT is looking for money from the county, the city of Seattle, the state Legislature, the federal government and tolls on I-90.
Related: Defect found in new SR 520 Bridge pontoons
Tolling is popular enough in Olympia that the Legislature recently approved a $1.5 million study to explore the option.
Meredith said tolling I-90 would serve two purposes: it would make traffic flow more evenly across the two bridges, “and the other reason to toll it would be to fund the remaining portion of the 520 program.”
Many bridge users KIRO 7 spoke with said they support tolls on I-90.
We checked, and even if the Legislature gives its approval, it could be several years before tolls are actually collected on the I-90 Bridge.
Still, because so much of the 520 project remains unfunded, the ball continues to roll to toll I-90.
KIRO
