Tolls for SR 99 tunnel taking shape, should be decided in September

SEATTLE – Washington’s Transportation Commission has advanced four toll options Wednesday for the new State Route 99 tunnel, all designed to keep tolls low enough that drivers don’t avoid the tunnel and take surface streets instead.

The basic range proposed for the tolls is:

• $1 for nights and weekends
• $1.50 for off-peak periods, including the middle of the day
• $1.75 for weekday mornings between 6 a.m. and 9  a.m.
• $2.50 for weekday afternoons

​State officials are looking at a few different options for tweaking that formula, such as lowering the top tolls at first and then raising them a little each year.

“We want to start with rates as low as we can,” said Carl See, the commission’s senior financial analyst.

That’s because the tolls will begin around the time downtown Seattle enters what officials call the “period of maximum constraint,” when big construction projects make traffic even worse.

After getting public comment on the options, the transportation commission plans to formally propose rates in July and set them in September.

The tunnel could open as early as October without tolls.

Tolls are expected to start a few months later, sometime in 2019.

When authorizing construction of the tunnel, the legislature required that $200 million of the cost come from tolls.

From KIRO 7’s Graham Johnson.