The following excerpt is from Thursday’s editorial in the Kitsap Sun.

The bad news is that beginning this summer, we’ll be paying tolls to cross a bridge.

The good news is that we’ll be doing it sooner than anybody else.

What all this means is that although area residents will be paying to drive across the Tacoma Narrows, they’ll be doing it on a new bridge that – paired with the old one – will start providing traffic congestion relief sooner than in any other region of Puget Sound.

The new bridge, for eastbound traffic going into Tacoma, will have two general-use lanes, one HOV lane, and one “add/drop” primarily for drivers entering and exiting near each end of the bridge. A similar lane configuration probably will be used on the existing bridge, for westbound traffic coming from Tacoma.

Four-laning each bridge is a major improvement from the original plans, which called for each bridge having only two general-purpose lanes and one HOV lane. …

The new bridge, of course, exists only because some legislators – notably former Sen. Bob Oke – were willing to push the issue through a reluctant Legislature and despite strident opposition from some residents in the Gig Harbor area. (Editor’s note: Oke died Monday night in Seattle following a battle with cancer.)

The problem was tolls. Understandably, some Gig Harbor residents were upset about the notion of paying to drive across a waterway when they were accustomed to doing it for free. …

But now, because of those tolls, the new Narrows Bridge is all but completed. And across Puget Sound, some megaprojects aren’t, because their supporters are still coming to grips with tolls – the hard, new realities of transportation funding in Washington state.

State Treasurer Mike Murphy said this week that despite pressure to begin work soon on the new state Route 520 bridge, he won’t sell bonds to pay for it unless both the 520 and I-90 bridges across Lake Washington are tolled to ensure adequate repayment funds.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge users will be the first – but not the last – to pay for major transportation projects that couldn’t gain statewide voter or legislative approval because they benefit only one region. …