If you had the opportunity, would you like to make a 600 percent return on an investment?

That payback—$42 billion—is what the Washington Roundtable calculates would come out of a $7 billion transportation package that includes projects like a completed State Route 167.

In a study released today, the Roundtable pinpoints seven of the state's largest unfunded projects, each of which has specific benefits to the state's economy. And in every case, failure to fund the projects will erode the ability of state businesses to compete and grow.

“One of the projects is the $1.66 billion it will take to finish SR 167 and SR 509, two freight routes that have been top priorities for the state's two biggest container points for decades,” writes the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Steve Wilhelm.

“In both cases the routes, which could take freight trucks directly to and from the marine terminals of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, start off promisingly, but then abruptly end. Trucks coming out of the Kent Valley travel speedily down the multi-lane SR 167, only to grind to a halt for the last few miles before the Port of Tacoma, in a quagmire of traffic lights and traffic congestion.”

"What we're trying to do is to restart some positive discussion in the next session," said Steve Mullin, president of the Washington Roundtable. The organization represents the interests of 50 top Washington state companies.