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It’s just a $3 toll. What’s the big deal?
Adele Ferguson
Political Columnist |
So here come the Gig Harbor folks again, bringing another lawsuit aimed at blocking the construction of a parallel Tacoma Narrows bridge.
At least, as long as they would be required to pay a toll to go to and from the Tacoma side, a trip they enjoy for free now on the existing bridge. They figure when it was paid for and tolls went off back in 1965, that this was their inalienable right to enjoy ‘til they or the bridge expired.
The fact that it years ago reached the saturation point with a daily traffic nightmare and mounting accidents and fatalities appears not to have made an impression. They, or their progenitors, by God paid for that bridge and they aren’t about to pay $3 to cross it, even if restoring tolls is the only way to finance a parallel bridge to relieve the massive traffic congestion.
What’s really sad about all this is that if the state had been able to proceed on building the second Tacoma Narrows bridge after the 1993 creation of its initiative whereby it partners with private contractors, it would be all done and in use now. We’d be driving on it today.
But, as often happens with bridges and highways, the human element didn’t welcome a new infrastructure neighbor, especially one that would hit their pocketbooks. On learning a $3 toll was in the works on both the new and existing spans, folks in Gig Harbor organized a Peninsula Neighborhood Assn. and filed lawsuits against it. They want toll collection only on the new bridge, leaving the existing bridge free as called for in current state law.
The state Supreme Court agreed that tolls cannot be collected on the existing bridge under the law “as currently written,” which tells the Legislature that changing the law would make it legal. So Sen. Bob Oke, R-Port Orchard, has introduced a bill to take it, and only it, out of the law, thus pacifying, he hopes, co-House Speaker Frank Chopp and others who want their paid-for bridges to remain under the umbrella of the ban on reinstatement of tolls.
Anyway, the state and the contractor, United Infrastructure Washington, are proceeding to reconcile their contract with the court decision, having been given the green light, they say, that their public-private partnership is constitutional. It just needs some patches here and there.
But here come the Gig Harbor folks again, filing yet another lawsuit saying the whole thing is in violation of state law and all work on buying properties, rights-of way, etc., should cease. And the push is back on for alternatives, such as reversible lanes on the existing bridge. . “In the a.m., have three (of the four) lanes going to Tacoma,” suggested Carl Glaser of Port Orchard, “then from 3 to 7 p.m., reverse them. Is it too logical to be tried by the powers that be?”
No, says Rhonda Brooks, supervisor on the Tacoma Narrows bridge team at the Department of Transportation, “it’s been considered, and 20 years ago it might have worked but it’s too late now. Traffic has increased so much that if you used a three lane-one lane reversible system, the one lane could not handle the traffic going against the commuter flow.
“And there’s the safety issue. Right now, you can move over about 50 percent and you won’t hit an oncoming car. But in order to put a movable barrier on the bridge, we do lose some lane space. You’ve seen those orange traffic cones where people have nicked them. Imagine you’ve got a concrete barrier in there which a car could hit and bounce off other cars. We’re more concerned about greater damage in the accidents that do occur. Most are minor but they’re increasing about 12 percent a year and average out to about one a day.”
Seven years we’ve diddled around with this thing. And all because a bunch of people don’t want to pay to cross a bridge they’ve used free for 35 years. Are they defenders of the rights of the little guy, or selfish cheapskates using legal sabotage to stall or destroy efforts to resolve a chaotic and dangerous situation, for the sake of a few bucks? Take your pick.
(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.) |
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