October marks the six-year anniversary of the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) issuance of its Record of Decision (ROD) for the SR-167 completion project. A ROD signals formal federal approval of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Assessment (EA) concerning a proposed highway project. The ROD authorizes the respective state transportation agency to proceed with design, land acquisition, and construction based on the availability of funds.
Why is the SR-167 ROD notable? First, the ROD was completed so long ago that it actually has expired. Depressing, huh?
Second, and perhaps most dubiously, we're sort of tired of celebrating this anniversary. We blogged about this last year in hopes that the Legislature would act sometime in 2013. The good news is that the year is not yet up and the Legislature still has time to act. The bad news is that another anniversary has gone by.
WSDOT did great work in preparing the EIS. Now it is time to take that work and turn it into an actual highway. It is time for the state to finish what it started and complete SR-167. 'Cause instead of eating stale anniversary cake a year from now, we'd rather be cracking champagne at a groundbreaking.