Seattle — As Governor Gregoire signed today’s stimulus funding legislation, Transportation Choices Coalition, Futurewise, and WashPIRG, in partnership with Smart Growth America today released a report showing the many ways the federal money could have been spent to address Washington’s transportation priorities and get the biggest bang for the buck.
Two of Washington’s projects were highlighted as good projects on this list, the Pierce County I-5 HOV project and the combined I-90 safety and maintenance projects. Two projects, the I-405 expansion project between 195th Ave. and SR 527 and the Yakima Valley Mall interchange were highlighted as bad investments for $70 million or 20% of the state’s stimulus funding for transportation projects. In Washington alone more than 400 bridges are structurally deficient including the SR 520 bridge, South Park bridge and Murray Morgan bridge.
These projects would have been very strong candidates for state stimulus spending. According to a poll released in January by the National Association of Realtors, an overwhelming 80 percent of Americans believe it is more important that the stimulus funding include efforts to repair existing highways and
public transit rather than to build new highways. The poll clearly shows that the vast majority of Americans believe restoring existing roads and bridges and expanding transportation options should take precedence over building new roads. Repair projects have also been shown to create 16% more jobs, and to do so faster, than those that build new highway capacity.
The report, Spending the Stimulus, lays out 20 ways that officials in Washington could have spent the federal funding on ready-to-go projects that would have addressed additional long-neglected transportation priorities while providing speedy and robust job creation and economic recovery.
Some high-priority, job creating project types identified in the report include investments that:
- Repair roads, bridges, transit facilities, buses, rail tracks and stations
- Build complete streets that help everyone get around; support cars, buses, bikes and pedestrians; and expand safe routes to school
- Support public transportation to meet increased demand
- Ease road congestion by providing more routing choices and diffusing traffic
- Support efforts to plan and coordinate transportation and development
fedstimulus_pressrelease09.pdf