Business Leaders Fear Gridlock Group Calls For Long-Term Funding For Major Transportation Projects

Saying Washington’s roads, ports and railways are vital to the state’s economy, a group of business executives are calling on the governor and the Legislature to provide long-term funding for major transportation projects.

A report released by the Washington Roundtable warns that the state is falling behind maintaining and improving its transportation system.

Made up of business executives, the Washington Roundtable is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization formed in 1983.

Washington’s major transportation problems include traffic congestion slowing cargo in and out of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma; delays in getting a third runway built at Sea-Tac International Airport and inadequate shipping routes through the Cascades and around Puget Sound, the report stated.

Since many of Eastern Washington’s goods go to market through the Puget Sound area, the West Side’s problems are worth an East-Sider’s attention, said Steve Excell, a Seattle consultant who worked on the report.

“We can snuff you out if we screw up over here,” Excell said. “If we screw up Sea-Tac, we screw up your plane connections out of Spokane and exports to the Pacific Rim.”

While problems crossing the Cascades and moving through Puget Sound grow, Washington’s competitors are making transportation investments, the report said.

The biggest competitor to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma is the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex in California, which is getting a $1.9 billion upgrade to handle its transportation needs for 20 years.

Last year, loaded international container volume dropped 5 percent at Seattle and 7 percent at Tacoma while increasing 10 percent at Long Beach and 1 percent at Los Angeles.

“While our competitors are building solutions, we are still debating what needs to be done,” the report said.

At Sea-Tac Airport, plans to build a third runway have been delayed by legal challenges from five cities and one school district.

Meanwhile, Vancouver, British Columbia, recently spent $360 million on its airport.

“The contrast is stark: Sea-Tac and Vancouver airports discovered their capacity problems at about the same time, and Vancouver has completed construction necessary to maintain an uncongested, world-class airport, while rancor and legal challenges continue to delay ground-breaking for Sea-Tac’s third runway,” the report states.

The report pointed to major spending by Japan and Europe for highways and tunnels. In Washington, meanwhile, “we do not see the long-term visionary planning or public consensus necessary to overcome natural obstacles like mountains and waterways.”

The report’s authors are pleased with plans to spend an additional $2.4 billion on the state’s transportation system over five years.

“We’re thrilled (the Legislature and governor) have made it an issue, because six months ago it was not,” said Phillip Bussey, Roundtable staff president.

But the $2.4 billion doesn’t address the long-term needs of the state, Bussey said.

The Department of Transportation estimates the state has a $30 billion transportation project backlog.

“My greatest fear is that we will get some money and then three years from now we’ll still have (the same major transportation problems) and the public will say ‘no way’ to new spending,” Bussey said.

, DataTimes