BUILD Interstate 605 (Seattle) - Cascade Foothills Freeway (Bellevue, Redmond: income, sales tax)

[Jiff]

I'm against more roads. Bad traffic slows population growth.

[sean98125]

Originally Posted by RJ8089

The SR99 tunnel (and I-5 Columbia River) will do little to improve traffic. They are essentially just replacements. The citizens of the State can demand I-605 be built via an ballot initiative.

As long as the initiative shows where the $15 billion is coming from to pay for it it would have some weight behind it. But that'll never happen. The state isn't about to pass an initiative to increase its taxes to drive a freeway through rural farmland with the primary benefit of easing traffic in Seattle.

[RJ8089]

Originally Posted by Jiff

I'm against more roads. Bad traffic slows population growth.

Your comment doesn't make sense. It's a contradiction.

The money for I-605 can come from a very slight raise of the sales tax... Sounds good to me!

Oh by the way, it's not just for Seattle. It's Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue that will benefit. The most important economic drivers to the entire Pacific Northwest. And most of the land for an I-605 is not farmland, it is forest.

[sean98125]

What's your alignment? The proposals I saw showed the road following the Highway 18 alignment to I-5 and then through the Snoqualmie River Valley along or beside the 203 alignment to Monroe, then down the Snohomish River Valley to Everett. Are you looking at one that is further to the east? The only forested section of that alignment is the 7 or so miles between Hobart and I-90, next to Tiger Mountain.

[Andy]

I want to see a Cascades Autobahn from Washington County, Oregon to the Canadian border. It would be toll, you'd have to purchase a transponder, and folks who violate the rules of the road (SLOW DRIVERS IN LEFT LANE) will be removed. It would work for locals, freight, and attract tourism.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Jiff

I'm against more roads. Bad traffic slows population growth.

- I'm against a higher income. Poverty slows wealth accumulation.

-I'm against more internet bandwidth. Poor internet infrastructure slows download times.

[RJ8089]

Originally Posted by Andy

I want to see a Cascades Autobahn from Washington County, Oregon to the Canadian border. It would be toll, you'd have to purchase a transponder, and folks who violate the rules of the road (SLOW DRIVERS IN LEFT LANE) will be removed. It would work for locals, freight, and attract tourism.

You're definitely proposing more than a simple I-605.....lol

I like the SR18/I-605 proposal since 1/2 of the infrastructure would already be in place, just needs to be improved. The only downside is that it would not benefit Tacoma unless they widened SR512/SR167. The continuing part of I-605 doesn't have to continue at the same place once it hits I-90. For an example, look at I-83 in Baltimore, MD when it hits I-695. Part of the freeway is I-695/I-83 then splits back off north to York, PA. It's all about being creative. But no one wants to take initiative or be creative.

[sean98125]

There are plenty of traffic engineers who want to take the initiative and be creative, but the state already spent $500,000 to determine that an I-605 isn't economically feasible. We can't afford to have our state transportation engineers spending their time working on designs for something that isn't going to happen.

There's no place else to put 605 other than the Snoqualmie River Valley. You might be able to go up the Tolt River valley, but then you'd come out at Gold Bar. Then you'd be building a new interstate parallel to US-2 while taking out neighborhoods and communities left and right to squeeze in an interstate right-of-way.

18 is almost a limited access 4 lane highway from I-90 to I-5. 203 is likely to be widened to four lanes at some point by 2030 or so, but for right now there's no indication that it is needed. It'll only be widened if the population expands in that area, but since most of the valley is wetlands and farms population growth is limited in that area.

I still think we're better off designating through lanes separate from the main travel lanes on I-5 between Tukwila and 145th and not having any access to or from them along that stretch.

[RJ8089]

"I-605 isn't economically feasible" means do nothing. They did studies years ago. It's now 2013.

[RJ8089]

I think "lane designation" is a horrible idea with the same amount of lanes. What did HOT lanes accomplish on SR167? What are HOV lanes accomplishing on I-405 between Renton & Tukwila. Thru lanes will cause more traffic jams by condensing non- thru traffic in less lanes. Seems like the same tired ideas that have been tried.