Well. Well. Well.

The people of Gig Harbor have been telling their elected officials and the Department of Transportation for ten years that their little scheme to extort toll money from us to build a new bridge that will only add one new HOV lane in each direction wouldn’t solve the traffic problems and we’re seeing the tip of the iceberg right now. Wait until they add those new tollbooths to the mix. You think you’ve got problems now.... Just wait.

The real solution to traffic problems west of Puget Sound is to add new capacity. I have fought for years to get the Department of Transportation (DOT) to reopen the evaluation of a new bridge from Kitsap County, across Vashon Island and into King County tying into the SR 518 freeway north of the SeaTac Airport in Burien. Over the past year I have made almost 100 presentations and not just in Olympia but to folks like the Kitsap County Commissioners, Port of Bremerton, groups on Vashon Island, Port of Grays Harbor, groups in Burien and City Officials, The Rotary and Chambers in Port Orchard and even on Bainbridge Island. Of the thousands of people I have talked with this past year there was only one person who didn’t think this is a great idea.

After several presentations to the Transportation Commission in Olympia they finally agreed to consider this issue at their retreat last April. Unfortunately they were sidetracked by a report from the Washington State Ferry folks who said this was not the time. Sure they would say that, they’re the ferry folks. This new corridor would eliminate half the ferry runs in Washington State, provide a 24/7 access across Puget Sound at half the cost of a ferry fare and would save you and me $2 billion in tax support over the next ten years — not including the cost of new capital investment - ferries and terminals.

The Department of Transportation’s own traffic studies showed that this northerly bridge would have taken 30 percent of the traffic off the Tacoma Narrows Bridge bringing our level of service below the congestion threshold.

Yes — we really never needed a new bridge after all. But our Senator Bob Oke didn’t want a new bridge bringing traffic into the south Kitsap area where he lives so we ended up with a stupid project that doesn’t work and, to add insult to injury, we have to pay for 100 percent of this $850 million dollar boondoggle. Oh — that’s before the inevitable cost overruns.

The people need to bring some sanity back to our government and in this case that can happen through your support of the Cross Sound Transportation Coalition (CSTC). This grass roots organization has continued to press elected officials, the Department of Transportation and the Transportation Commission in Olympia, as well as elected officials in Kitsap and King County to dust this project off, show some imagination, and start thinking outside the box. Without this added corridor there will never be an end to the congestion you see today at the Narrows Bridge.

Randy Boss
Gig Harbor