Higher tolls could be en route as Highway 520 costs surge

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Drivers on the Highway 520 floating bridge will probably pay higher tolls as a small step toward keeping pace with skyrocketing costs to finish the final mile, over Seattle’s Portage Bay.

Even then, a recent shortfall of at least $600 million might cause other highway construction or maintenance to be postponed, if Highway 520 drains cash from the entire state’s transportation budgets. There’s even a thin chance that someday, tolls might be extended to the Portage Bay bridge, between Montlake Boulevard and Interstate 5.

The state Transportation Commission, which sets specific rates for Washington’s five tolled highways, is scheduled to discuss 520 tolls Wednesday. About 63,000 drivers, 244 van pools and 11,000 transit riders crossed per day in the year ending mid-2023.

Cost estimates to replace the whole 520 corridor from Seattle to Overlake, a megaproject lasting more than two decades, have climbed from $4.6 billion in 2011 to $4.9 billion in 2022 and $5.5 billion this year.

The latest hit happened last fall, when both bids for a new Portage Bay crossing exceeded engineering estimates by the Washington State Department of Transportation, causing WSDOT to suspend a contract award. Builders were to replace a segment built in 1963 on hollow columns, which would crumble or snap in a major earthquake.

The funding crisis at Portage Bay drew attention during the short two-month session ending Friday. Lawmakers scrounged $52 million extra this year as a short-term remedy.

And they emphatically decided that delaying the final connection from 520 to I-5, where the hillside is already carved for adjacent ramp work, won’t be an option.

The road ahead includes:

A big construction deal. The state budget calls on WSDOT to hire Skanska USA, which filed the winning bid of $1.37 billion last fall to build a concrete bridge and lid at Capitol Hill, compared with an $800 million state engineer’s estimate.

Construction prices nationally rose nearly 50% from 2022-24, government indexes show. The demand (and federal stimulus aid) outstrips the size of the labor force, the speed of the supply chain and the roster of contractors who can tackle big jobs.

To further postpone a Portage Bay deal, and redesign and rebid the work, will probably just allow inflation to further ravage the budget, state leaders decided.

Higher tolls. Drivers on 520 pay rates that vary by time of day, from a low of $1.25 to a high of $4.50 each direction for Good to Go passholders. Those will likely rise this summer.

The Washington State Transportation Commission and WSDOT will discuss options Wednesday afternoon, and would not divulge them Monday. New toll prices, for the floating section only, will be proposed for public comment this spring.

Potential income is limited. The original tolls were only meant to support $1.2 billion in debt, or a mere quarter of new 520. A toll steep enough to bankroll the entire corridor would result in hardly any traffic, if possible at all.

Highway 520 tolls just increased last July, by 20 cents or higher per trip.

A longer toll zone. Since 2011, tolls have been charged in all lanes over Lake Washington. (WSDOT tolled its old four-lane bridge five years to gather more money for the new six-lane bridge, completed in 2016.)

The notion of tolling a longer corridor came up in a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle.

“What I’ll tell you is, I’ve heard almost unanimous feedback from people in my district, they just want the project over,” he said. The risk that money shortages would cause delays, with constant noise, machines and dust until 2038 or so, is unthinkable to neighbors, he testified.

The state Senate even voted 47-2 to authorize those, until House Transportation Committee Chair Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, gutted that clause last week, calling such action premature.

Such a startup would require two to five years, predicted Reema Griffith, executive director of the Transportation Commission, at a House hearing.

The final supplemental budget omits the word “segment” from the first Senate version, but still mentions $500,000 for a study of “updated tolling” on Highway 520.

It’s unclear what will happen, but Fey said his intent was to strip out any study of segment tolls, at least for 2024.

He said Monday a one-mile toll there would reap only $35 million to $50 million total, after expenses, over a quarter century, based on preliminary WSDOT information he’s seen.

Tolling opponent David Hablewitz, who founded Stop405tolls.org last decade, was unaware of the segment-toll push. In the wake of the new $15 maximum toll on I-405 express lanes this month, he said now would be a good time to reorganize drivers against any spread of Highway 520 toll zones. He accuses WSDOT of creating a “zero-sum game” instead of giving drivers equal access to public roads.

“Transportation is no longer a matter of supporting our society, this community, but it’s a matter of pay-to-play, and for those of you who can’t afford it, too bad,” he said Monday, when asked about segment tolls.

Sales tax waiver. Lawmakers passed a bill to defer sales taxes on materials and other construction needs at Portage Bay, until 2054. That could save the state $140 million this decade, House Democrats said.

The floating section previously got a sales-tax deferral, which helps WSDOT but means less money for the state general fund to tackle education, law enforcement, social services or environmental protection.

A tax top-off? Pedersen said he’s been assured WSDOT can afford to sign the Portage Bay construction deal, and find the money to pay builders, by rearranging when other projects in the $17 billion, 16-year Move Ahead Washington package of 2022 get done. It’s not immediately clear which parts of the state would be saddled with congestion or worn-out roads for longer.

By the time the Legislature shifts all the dollars, Pedersen predicted in an interview, WSDOT will need a “top-off” to Move Ahead Washington, by lining up more revenues in four to five years. That’s in addition to higher vehicle, driver’s license and service fees imposed less than two years ago, and a gasoline tax totaling 49.4 cents per gallon since 2016.