The chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Transportation Committees held a joint press conference on Thursday discussing the need for a transportation package, challenges with the SR-520 floating bridge and deep-bore tunnel and other issues.
For fans of SR-167 (as well as SR-509, I-90/Snoqualmie Pass and the North Spokane Freeway, just to name a few), it was disconcerting to see how issues completely unrelated to these projects seem poised to doom their completion. Talking about setbacks to SR-520 and the deep-bore tunnel, Senator Curtis King said, "We cannot continue to let these kinds of things happen again." Rep. Orcutt agreed, declaring, "We have to fix these problems before we do anything else." This left some listeners wondering how long popular projects with near universal support would be held hostage because of mistakes in King County.
Senator Tracy Eide, expressing support for reforms to prevent mistakes like those that happened with SR-520 from happening again, did warn that delay was not a viable alternative either. "If we don’t keep Washington state moving forward, it’s vital to our economic vitality and we will be left behind," she said. "Our ports need help. We need to make sure our products get to the port. It does not matter where you live—east-side, west-side, north, south-- we all have to go through Puget Sound to get to the ports. We have Prince Rupert that is out there. We have the Panama Canal opening up. The competition is fierce. We have got to make sure that our people who live here, work here, play here can get from Point A to Point B. This is an issue we need to address."
Rep. Judy Clibborn agreed. "Going out now and asking for more money—it is an uncomfortable time," she said. "What I don’t think people understand is that if you don’t do a transportation package you slowly start loosing your competitive edge and I don’t want us to get tied up in that and in eight or ten years look back and ask why we didn’t step up the plate when we had the opportunity."
One note of silver lining is that for at least three of the speakers, there was agreement that a package would be needed at some point. "We do have a need, and we need to show that we can use it in the best way possible," said Senator King. "We’re going to continue to work on a package because we know we have to have one. But it is a matter of timing." Senator Eide noted that there already some degree of consensus, saying that the two sides had already agreed to nine of the thirteen reform proposals offered by the Majority Caucus Coalition.
In the end, though, it was fascinating and sad that instead of focusing on how to deliver on areas of agreement (like completing SR-167, SR-509, the Triangle Project or I-90 improvements at Snoqualmie Pass), most of the discussion focused on whether reforms were needed (even though all four said yes), a bridge project everyone already agree was dead (Columbia River Crossing) and questions about rumors about speculations about maybe something happening with fuel standards.
The full press conference can viewed at TVW, which was also covered by the Seattle Times, and the News Tribune.