Tolling: today’s hot transportation topic

From the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel, tolling has generated many headlines recently. The House Transportation Committee just wrapped a work session and hearing focused on this very subject: How might tolling help finance several significant transportation projects in Washington? We’ve reported before how the long-term projections for fuel-tax revenues are coming in lower than expected, and today’s committee meeting underscores just how much attention is turning toward tolling as a way to generate targeted revenue for specific projects.

The committee heard tolling reports for the Columbia River Crossing, Alaskan Way Viaduct-replacement and I-405 congestion-improvement projects. All three projects are expected to be financed in part by toll revenue, from a low of $67 million in the I-405 project to $1-2 billion for the Columbia River Crossing.

Following the work session, the committee continued by hearing three toll-related bills for I-405, the 520 corridor and tolling policy generally. As we know from past sessions, tolling is always a controversial issue, so today kicks off debate on a topic that could very well dominate transportation conversations this session.