Mercer Island caught in middle of I-90 tolling debate

BY Chris Sullivan  on January 29, 2013 @ 4:59 am (Updated: 5:30 pm - 1/29/13 )

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Tolling the one and only way on and off the island does not sit well with residents. "No tolling" signs litter the island. (KIRO Radio Photo/Dave Ross) | Zoom
The state doesn't have the money to finish the 520 Bridge project. It is more than a billion dollars short. So the state wants to toll I-90 to pay for it.

That doesn't sit well with drivers around the region and especially the 22,000 people who live on Mercer Island who have no other way to get to and from their homes.

The state Department of Transportation is making its pitch to cities served by I-90 this week. The Washington State Department of Transportation's John White was in Seattle Monday saying the state needs to toll I-90 or the 520 Bridge project won't be completed. "We are looking at full tolling of I-90," White told the Seattle City Council.

Turning the HOV lanes on I-90 into toll lanes is also being considered, but it isn't going to be enough to cover the shortfall so that state needs to toll the entire stretch across Lake Washington: from Bellevue to Seattle.

On Tuesday afternoon on Mercer Island, WSDOT was facing a packed house full of angry people. Tolling the one and only way on and off the island does not sit well with residents. "No tolling" signs litter the island. City councilmember Mike Cero said people living on the island can't afford a tax like that. "The normal household with kids in the schools they'll run up a tab of $5,000 to $8,000 with a potential toll."

Cero believes that will force some to move, depressing home values, and businesses which rely on off-island customers will disappear. "They won't come to Mercer Island to save a little money at the thrift store or to buy their glasses at Mercer Island Eyeworks."

For Cero, this is not just a Mercer Island issue. "This is a regional issue, and Mercer Island has the same interest that Bellevue, Sammamish and Issaquah do," he said. .

What about the freight haulers, Cero asks? They don't use 520. They use I-90 to get to the Port. They have no other options either.

But as John White said - tolling is the direction WSDOT is going. The gas tax just doesn't do it anymore. "It's all going to be about user-fees going forward," he said.

The state is holding these public meetings around the region this year, and it will present its findings to the legislature. Lawmakers will decide in 2014 whether or not to place tolls on I-90.

Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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Comments (32)


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  • NW Libertarian wrote...
    Cut the Design
    January 29, 2013 7:32 am
    The 520 project has been designed without regard to cost. The bridge is only $900 million of the $4.7 Billion, the rest is the Transit stops & Lidding. Cut the lidding on both sides. Amazingly with $4.7 Billion they couldn't even fit in correcting the "Left" side connection with Southbound I-5. If connected on right side there would be great congestion relief. The Engineers should be jailed for this horrible design -not correcting the I-5 connection, only adding a HOV lane instead of more general purpose lanes, the lidding on both sides (are they going to charge the soccer players on the fields above $100,000 a year to play?) and putting another draw bridge over the Montlake cut...!?!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • nwhandy wrote...
    Is anybody REALLY surprised?
    January 29, 2013 7:40 am
    I'd say they screwed up their numbers, but I'm convinced this was the intent from the beginning. It was obvious from the start that this was coming. And trying to gloss things over by calling it a 'User fee"? how is it a 'user' fee if I'm being charged for a road I'm NOT using? Do any of these people have to pay tolls when THEY go to work? Or have they (as happens all too often for those in Government 'service') exempted themselves? After all no one else HAS to get to work, right?
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  • igotanopinion wrote...
    What a joke
    January 29, 2013 7:52 am
    So glad I moved away from that place. 29 years in king co and dont miss the BS at all. A government requirement should be to pass a 6th grade math and science test and then show that you can tie your shoes and wipe your own a55. My senses tell me that most of the leaders in WA would fail. ( DC too!) Really, A BILLION short on a public project? This is how and why our retarded govt is in this posistion in the first place. I bet if they had used the help from "home depot corner" we wouldn't be a billion short. I bet we'd probably be ahead on time and money. Oh but we have to use under performing lazy union tards to complete a project like this. And I'm sure the contractor won't take a loss, even if it was his mistake. That's because our lazy govt project manager hasn't a clue what a project like this is because he can't leave the office. So now the people, the ones who do just take it in the shorts, will continue to take it. But hey, you elected these folks in office anyways right?
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  • Cameron wrote...
    I think the State DOT is trying to make it clear
    January 29, 2013 8:03 am
    To the residents of Mercer Island, you are not special, you are the same as those who live in the San Juan's, you chose to live on an island serviced by the State Highway system, the only difference is one is a bridge and one is a Ferry. If the exceptionally rich residents want to help DOT see the light, develop an alternative on and off the island. Your own bridges, ferry system and under cut the States tolls. I would say it would make far more sense to unelect those who allowed this monstrosity to get to this point, but Washiongotnians are simply not bright enough to vote in their own self interests.
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  • WingNut2 wrote...
    I live on Mercer Island...
    January 29, 2013 8:12 am
    .. and I support the toll. It won't be on both bridges so we'll still be able to shop off island. Plus, it will reduce congestion considerably.
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  • Snout wrote...
    Me too.
    January 29, 2013 3:55 pm
    How will this reduce congestion? Will people go around the horn through Renton all of a sudden? Please.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • awbitf wrote...
    Why not just halt the 520 project
    January 29, 2013 10:00 am
    until the tolls have generated enough money to pay for it, or at least enough to make it solvent.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tolli90 wrote...
    Toll It: http://Tolli-90.com
    January 29, 2013 10:09 am
    There are a lot of very rational arguments being made about overspending and budgets. Those won't change the current situation. Toll both bridges, even out traffic, and finish the project.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rick W7PSK wrote...
    GO AWAY
    January 29, 2013 11:27 am
    Because if they Toll I-90 they will spend it on other frivolous crap and come back and tell us Babies and old ladies will die unless we get more money for the 520.

    Giving in to an addiction and hoping they will be cured later will not cure the addiction, it will only make it worse.

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  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    Come on.
    January 29, 2013 10:10 am
    All those "evil" rich people on Mercer can afford it. Paying for your highway is only "fair". (Sarcasm)
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    I love people like CH.
    January 29, 2013 10:13 am
    Vote "D", take advantage of the makers for all he can, THEN he complains about the very people he voted for. Oh, well. What else can one expect but blatant hypocrisy.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Big Kabuki wrote...
    Get used to it
    January 29, 2013 10:14 am
    I pay close to $1,000 a year for Tacoma Narrows Bridge tolls just to get to work 5 days a week, and that's with the good2go transponder. Sure, I could take the 4 hour alternate route from the Key Peninsula through Shelton and Olympia, or I could backtrack to Bremerton or Southworth to take the ferry and then drive down to Tacoma (not gonna happen) so I'm not as landlocked as those who live on Mercer Island. But man, I'm just about tapped out.
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  • ToldYa wrote...
    get rid of 'prevailing wages'
    January 29, 2013 11:04 am
    and a huge part of the problem is rectified... make WA a right-to-work state!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • nwhandy wrote...
    Amen!
    January 29, 2013 11:09 am
    !
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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