Transportation secretary tours county highways

MacDonald spoke at Rotary meeting

MOSES LAKE — The Washington State transportation secretary got a first hand look Wednesday at some area highways slated for improvements under a package passed by the legislature earlier this year.

Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald spoke to a luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Moses Lake at the Moses Lake Golf & Country Club, where he outlined some of the projects scheduled under the most recent three-cent state gas tax collection.

MacDonald spoke alongside State Sen. Joyce Mulliken, who later took the secretary on a tour of Highway 17 and Interstate 90. Mulliken told the Rotarians that she has been an outspoken critic of WSDOT and other state organizations and didn't vote for the last nickel gas tax projects in 2003 because there were no projects in her district. But Mulliken said she voted for the most recent 9.5-cent gas tax package because of the projects planned for Grant County.

"Nobody twisted my arm," she said, "I just said, 'this is important.'"

In his speech, MacDonald told the crowd that Grant County is one county where every dollar pumped into gas tax funds is pumped back out for WSDOT projects locally. He also spoke about where other gas tax monies go; stating that $150 million per year of WSDOT's budget goes to funding maintenance projects on state roads, which he calculated as costing Washington drivers $30 per car per year.

"I want to make sure you're getting a dollar for dollar return," MacDonald told the Rotarians.

Locally, MacDonald mentioned projects like the Potato Hill Bridge over I-90 and the widening of portions of Highway 17.

"The flagship project is State Route 17," MacDonald told the Rotarians, "we've talked about State Route 17 for a long time in the Department of Transportation."

One Highway 17 project that has been scheduled for construction in 2006 is that of the widening of Highway 17 from Pioneer Way to Stratford Road to four lanes. The $15.2 million project is one of 274 transportation projects allotted statewide from the most recent three-cent tax. The project, WSDOT Region Manager Donald Senn said after the meeting, has been in the works for several years.

The project depends on Initiative 912, which will ask votes in November if they wish to repeal the most recent 9.5-cent gas tax allotted by the legislature.

While not taking any position on the initiative, both MacDonald and Mulliken said on their tour Wednesday that the repeal of the tax would put on hold any plans for the Highway 17 improvements.

"It will be ready to go," Mulliken said while traveling down the Stratford Road to Pioneer Way stretch, "But there's no construction money without that three cents."

Along with touring the two-lane portion of Highway 17 between Moses Lake and Ephrata, Mulliken, MacDonald, Senn and Transportation Commissioner Karen Bonaudi met with representatives from the Port of Moses Lake and Grant County Economic Development Council concerning the North Columbia Basin Railroad Project.

But Mulliken also stressed the need for the widening of Highway 17 for the entire stretch to Ephrata, suggesting that much of the right of way is already owned by WSDOT.

"Congestion is frustrating," Mulliken said, adding that people will get frustrated on a two-lane road and pass another car in a dangerous situation with deadly consequences.

Four-lane roads decrease head on collisions according to Senn, because a second lane allows for passing that would otherwise drive into oncoming traffic. He said a four-lane road also addressed traffic volumes and traffic safety. Senn pointed to $1 million allotted for a passing lane north of Moses Lake to begin construction in 2008, and $5 million for the initial scoping and environmental process for the widening of the road between Moses Lake and Ephrata. A date for that scoping and environmental process has not been set.

"This is a microcosm of all of our problems," MacDonald said of Highway 17 following the tour.

He added that the tour will give him a better understanding of the project while in Olympia. He said following the tour that it is hard to imagine a project more in need than the widening of Highway 17, but added that busy two-lane roads need to be widened throughout the state.