$3.50 peak toll planned on 520; Eyman protests

Drivers would pay $3.50 each way to cross the Highway 520 floating bridge at peak times beginning next spring, under a proposal issued Tuesday.

The Washington State Transportation Commission is to make its final decision Jan. 5 — unless Tim Eyman's Initiative 1053 forces the toll decision into the lap of the state Legislature.

State transportation managers, consultants and the unelected commission have looked at possible toll rates for about two years. Although commissioners called Tuesday's vote a beginning of the outreach process, it is really closer to the end.

Deputy Transportation Secretary Dave Dye said tolls likely would begin in April.

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to collect tolls on the 1963 bridge to help raise $1.1 billion toward the new $4.6 billion, six-lane 520 corridor from Interstate 405 to Interstate 5.

Tolls would be variable, so that rates are highest during the busiest times of day. That policy is a sort of middle ground between the Highway 167 high-occupancy or toll (HOT) lane, which changes price every few minutes for solo drivers, and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which is always $2.75 round trip, collected eastbound only.

Cars would pay using the DOT's "Good to Go" transponder, just like on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Drivers who lack the "Good to Go" prepaid account would be charged an extra $1.50 to cover the state's costs to bill them by mail using license-plate recognition cameras. There will be no toll booths.

Other states will share driver addresses so the DOT can bill out-of-state drivers, but Washington doesn't have an agreement covering tolls for British Columbia drivers. Talks continue, state tolling director Craig Stone said.

Tolls would increase at least 2.5 percent each year starting July 1, 2012, until mid-2016, when the rate would hit $4.35. The floating pontoons are to be installed by 2014, and a completed crossing in 2016 or later.

Questions persist about how many drivers will detour to avoid tolls. The state hopes some switch to transit or drive less, easing congestion. If tolls are too high, the state's revenue could slip, Ford warned.

"We won't have all the answers until people start driving over the bridge," he said.

Reducing congestion through tolls is supposed to improve travel times, but Commissioner Elmira Forner of Chelan County predicted there will be bottlenecks on the bridge itself around 2015, when the new pontoons provide six lanes but the roadway entering Seattle isn't replaced.

Eyman testified Tuesday that the commission lost the power to set toll rates when his I-1053 passed this month. The initiative says all legislative action raising taxes must be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature, and any new or increased fees require majority legislative approval.

Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, has asked the Attorney General's Office for an opinion on whether I-1053 requires lawmakers to set tolls. The office has 60 days to issue its opinion, spokesman Dan Sytman said.

Said Eyman: "Government seems like a wild stallion that wants to turn in a million directions, and doesn't want to have any controls put on its ability to collect what it wants." He is making similar arguments this week about ferry fare increases.

The commission's executive director, Reema Griffith, said that if I-1053 does remove its toll-setting powers, the commission simply could forward its technical analysis and recommendations to the Legislature this winter, for the House and Senate to act.

Legislators have talked about changing the law to also toll Interstate 90, to ease a $2 billion shortfall on 520. The first move could be partial tolling to let solo drivers into the I-90 carpool lanes, but Dye said there is no DOT proposal for the 2011 session to toll the whole I-90 bridge.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com