On the heels of City plans to increase traffic and pedestrian safety and promote bicycle use, the Seattle Department of Transportation is reducing car lanes on some streets while adding bike and two-way center-turn lanes. The stated goals are to keep vehicles to the speed limit while creating complete streets for all users. 

Are these “road diets” good transportation policy? C.R. Douglas goes to the street proposed for an upcoming road diet—Northeast 125^th Street in the Lake City and Pinehurst neighborhoods—and interviews a business owner and a residents about the possible changes. Back in the studio, Douglas welcomes supporters and opponents of the transportation policy: Paul Guppy, Washington Policy Center; David Hiller, Cascade Bicycle Club Advocacy Director; Suzie Burke, Fremont Business Owner; and Eric Widstrand, Seattle Department of Transportation.

 No matter how you like your roads—multi-modal or car-centric—you won’t want to miss this debate! Tonight, Friday, September 17, at 7 p.m., City Inside/Out, SEATTLE CHANNEL, Cable 21 or right here on http://www.seattlechannel.org/. Also earn why C.R. Douglas was just named one of the city’s “Political Geniuses” by The Stranger by watching any of last season’s shows right now by visiting http://www.seattlechannel.org/CityInsideOut/.

On Wednesday, September 8, 7 p.m., tune to to Ask the Mayor on Cable 21 and call 206-684-8821 and talk to the mayor and SEATTLE CHANNEL host C.R. Douglas. If you can’t call then, call 206-684-8821 anytime (right now for instance!) and have your question recorded for the show. Or email your question by writing to askthemayor@seattle.gov anytime the inspiration strikes you. You can also send the mayor questions on SEATTLE CHANNEL’s Facebook or TWITTER accounts!. 

Don’t miss your opportunity to raise your questions to the mayor! Also watch past episodes now by visiting http://www.seattlechannel.org/AskTheMayor/

Elsewhere in the program, Douglas asked Councilmembers if they had any regrets about 2009. Councilmember Tim Burgess replied, “I was really disappointed that we did not do a better job of explaining why the bag fee was a very important step forward in our environmental protection work that Seattle has, in many ways, led the nation on. I also regret probably speaking out too soon before I was ready about downtown street crime problems and panhandling and not then being able to adequately back up what I was advocating for. But after the first of the year, we’ll re-launch that effort.”

State government says it’s necessary to spend up to $4.6 billion to replace the bridge and its corridor between Seattle and Bellevue. The bridge opened in 1963 and the state has determined the structure is nearing the end of its life. Recently, a key group of legislators, including state House Transportation Chair Judy Clibborn, endorsed the so-called “A+” plan to replace the bridge and reconfigure traffic in the Montlake neighborhood. The plan includes building a second drawbridge over the Montlake Cut in addition to a new six-lane span over Lake Washington. The plan would also continue to provide access to and from the bridge via Lake Washington Boulevard that transverses the Washington Park Arboretum.

Rep. Clibborn says, The “‘A+’ [plan] is what we can pay for.” She also adds that she is confident that a new drawbridge will be able to be permitted in an extremely environmentally sensitive area—the Montlake Cut that provides the only passage for fish that migrate from Puget Sound to Lake Washington.

“A+ is dead on arrival,” responds the Coalition for a Sustainable 520′s Jonathan Dubman. “The A+ plan…runs the table on doing everything wrong from one end of this corridor to the other…It doesn’t fix the problems and it causes new ones.” Dubman would prefer a tunnel that goes under the Montlake Cut and allows bridge traffic to and from the north to bypass the Montlake neighborhood entirely.

The Arboretum Foundation’s Paige Miller says, “The plans simply favor concrete over parks, none of them address our concerns.”  Miller stresses that a new 520 bridge should no longer use Lake Washington Boulevard as “a long on-and-off ramp for 520.” Instead she wants to see strong traffic calming measures–perhaps even tolling the Boulevard–to discourage vehicles from going through the Arboretum.

The WSDOT website explains: “Crews begin each boring by drilling a shallow test hole, which is completed in approximately one business day. Crews will return to each location to drill a more extensive boring that will take five to 15 business days to complete.”

The same week, two groups of stakeholders—the Magnolia Community Club and the BINMIC Action Committee, a group of Ballard industrial businesses—sent letters expressing similar reservations. The Queen Anne and Magnolia News reports that the Magnolia Community Club’s letter states, “It is unlikely that most traffic originating from Magnolia and points northwest using 15th Ave West will be able to use the tunnel due to the difficulty of accessing the portal and the awkwardness of traffic flow.” The BINMIC Action Committee doesn’t believe that the project can be completed on time, stating “Given the planning, design construction and traffic analysis issues we have identified, the BINMIC Action Committee and its member organizations believe it is unrealistic that the current plan for completion of the North Portal design be completed by the end of 2009.”

The Ballard News Tribune reports that WSDOT is in listening mode: “Amy Grotefendt, a spokesperson for the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Program said, ‘We’re out here tonight asking people to give us comments on what issues should be analyzed in the EIS (environmental impact statement) now that we have the portal designs and know how access into and out of the tunnel will work.’”

Earlier this month, Governor Chris Gregoire signed a new law authorizing $2.8 billion in state funds to replace the viaduct with a bored tunnel under Seattle’s First Avenue from the Battery Street tunnel to the sports stadiums.

Licata believes that the current economic climate might help the bored tunnel. “If the costs are as low as possible, maybe they’ll actually come in on budget,” he told host C.R. Douglas.

Council President Richard Conlin said he thinks the amendment to the state Legislature’s tunnel authorization that requires Seattle property owners to pay for any cost overruns is unlikely to survive long. “When some other cities wake up and realize, ‘Wait-this could happen to us on our next highway project!’ it may be something that the Legislature will want to quietly deep-six, maybe in the next [legislative] session.”

In addition, the bill caps the cost of the bridge replacement at $4.65 billion. It does not, however, make decisions about which design alternative should be pursued. Instead, it creates the SR 520 Work Group that will report back to the legislature by January 1, 2010 on its recommendations for design and financing of the project. The SR 520 Work Group is comprised of 12 legislators mostly from districts that have some part of the bridge within their geographical boundaries-including State House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-Seattle), House Transportation Chair Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island), Senator Ed Murray (D-Seattle) and Senator Rodney Tom (D-Medina)-and Washington State Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond.

Based on the proposal, the round-trip tolls of the new Evergreen Point bridge would range from $5.66 to $8.13 in today’s dollars and $6.90 to $9.90 when the new bridge is expected to open in 2015. Official estimate it could take over 40 years to finish funding the bridge.

The latest cost estimate for the new bridge is $4.38 billion. The Legislature agreed to fund $552 million and the Regional Transportation Investment District $1.1 billion if voters consent to a tax increase that will raise $8.5 billion for several road projects.

However, even with that funding the project is still $2.7 billion less than the estimated cost.

One state lawmaker said they have to respond to the overwhelming cost of the SR520 project this session.