Transportation tied to jobs, expansion

QUINCY - Transportation needs that appear to concern only Western Washington also affect future jobs and development on the east side of the state.

It's because products must be delivered to market that the state must stay competitive and jobs kept here.

Port of Seattle Commission President Bill Bryant detailed key transportation needs Thursday to about 80 people during the Port of Quincy's Rural Economic Development and Freight Mobility Summit.

"We need to get going and remember the 2014 clock is ticking," he said. "Our competition is going to start in 2014."

There is a need to finish state Route 509 and state Route 167, from the Port of Seattle to Normandy Park.

"We built half of it and stopped," he said.

The completion would remove 40 percent of the trucks from Interstate 5 and facilitate the movement of goods from the Port of Seattle.

Washington state has invaluable assets, including two deep-water ports, great river facility ports, and access to Interstate 90, I-5 and on-dock rail.

"We have assets most states would hunger for," he said.

Washington must decide if it wants to compete and if so, adopt reforms to make the state globally competitive.

Terry Brewer, executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Council, asked about stimulus dollars and transportation projects.

Bryant said a rail project in Centralia didn't qualify for stimulus dollars, but they did receive passenger rail funds to deal with rail bottlenecks at the Kalama bypass and in Vancouver.

He mentioned other priorities, including finishing grade separations in Kennewick, Toppenish, Kent and Auburn.

But we must not do the work based on when it's convenient for us, he said.

Competitors in British Columbia, Houston, Charleston, and Savannah aren't going to sit idly by and wait for us to get our act together.

"We have to transform how we govern and transform transportation in the state," he said. "If we don't, we're taking our competitors for granted."

In the 1970s, Baltimore was the busiest port on the East Coast, but they didn't transform themselves, Bryant commented.

"In 15 years, they were developing their waterfront for tourism," he said. "It doesn't have to happen ... Tens of thousands of jobs depend upon the fact that we don't allow it to happen here."

It's important to insure those policies and budgets ensure there will be dynamic agriculture, manufacturing and trade centers.

"If we do that, we will remain a globally competitive force on the Pacific Rim," he says.

Bryant was one  of six speakers at the summit. Other speakers were Dan Newhouse, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, Scott L. Witt, State Rail and Marine Office, state Department of Transportation and Chris Mnichowski, co-owner of Rail Logistics/Cold Train.

Pat Boss, a Port of Quincy spokesperson, said attendees included food processing industries, steamship lines, and the agricultural community.

"We had the right people there," he said. "The people who wanted to be there were there."