Break up reconstruction into manageable projects
There are enough questions and problems with the Department of Transportation’s State Route 520 A+ plan to suggest this is not the best use of our state’s $4.5 billion resources [“New 520 bridge won’t solve I-5 merge mess,” page one, March 12]. However, it appears there is considerable political pressure and will to move forward on 520.
The state should consider breaking up the project and focusing on the bridge replacement first and defer the west connection to Interstate 5 until a solid design and plan exists. The bridge can be built now with available funding — though it should probably include the ability to support light rail. The west connection is not funded and lacks a compelling design that even meets the most basic high-occupancy-vehicle lane requirements as raised in Mike Lindblom’s article last Friday.
There are many other serious design issues including the way the roadway moves through Montlake. By making some tactical reinforcements to the Portage Bay Viaduct and deferring the rest of the west, it allows the state to make tangible and important progress now instead of holding up everything until the west approach is fixed. Its also much more fiscally responsible given the myriad other transit issues in the region.
— Steve Silverberg, Seattle
What we have doesn’t work, but don’t want what we need
I had an early appointment at the UW Hospital last week. I had forgotten that the southbound express lanes offer no connection to the 520 bridge and its death-defying exit to Montlake. So I kept on wondering where I would come out and how I would get back. As a transplant resident, I don’t have the road smarts that comes from time and travail. I drove all the way to Fifth Street and a quick left put me back on I-5 North and from there to 520 and Montlake.
When I read the piece about the new bridge, I was again moved to disappointment, puzzlement and frustration — and probably other things. Then there’s the biennial fuss over school funding — which will probably leave Washington students again near the bottom of public funding. And then the vox populi still resounds, “too many taxes, cut back the waste.”
Friends and countrymen: Will we ever be willing to pay for what we want and want what works? Any money spent on a losing proposition is no bargain regardless of price.
— Jack McClurg, Marysville