Special session highway bill would fund Seattle’s 520 Replacement by leaving it $100M short

520 construction near Madison Park. Image: WSDOT

A proposed highway funding bill kicking around the state legislature includes money for 520 construction through Seattle without having to toll I-90 (list of projects here). Senate Republicans reportedly are open to an 11.5 cent/gallon increase to the gas tax to raise $1.3 billion for 520’s remaining funding gap. The problem? That funding gap is $1.4 billion, leaving the bill $100 million short of what is needed to fully replace the project.

What would this mean for Seattle? It’s unclear, but the $100 million question is what part of the project would remain unfunded? Neighborhood mitigation projects? Perhaps. Or, this could be considered “savings” from the City Council vote to shelve the second bascule bridge across the Montlake Cut “for the foreseeable future.” That decision followed a city report last year saying that traffic delay through Montlake was caused by inefficient intersections, not the four-lane bridge itself. The amount that had previously been budgeted in the 520 project for a second Montlake bridge? $100 million.