Washington DOT Keeps Authority to Set Toll Rates

The Washington State Department of Transportation will continue to be allowed to set toll rates without legislative approval after voters narrowly rejected a measure that would have restricted toll changes.

The initiative would have required the state legislature to approve each change in tolls there. The transportation commission, which serves as WSDOT’s board of directors, is the only group that must approve changes, but the legislature must vote to impose new tolls, WSDOT said.

The measure also would have banned tolls that vary depending on the time of day and required that toll revenues be used only for the road where they were collected.

The measure garnered only 47.95% of the vote statewide on Nov. 8.

“Just getting [the initiative] on the ballot was a huge victory because it forced a healthy debate on politicians’ plans for tolls,” Tim Eyman, who co-sponsored the initiative, said in a statement. “State and local governments were moving full steam ahead — below the radar screen of regular citizens — to impose tolls on highways, bridges and roads throughout the Puget Sound region and beyond.”

The state’s trucking industry “didn’t really take a position during the election process,” Jim Tutton, vice president of the Washington Trucking Association, told Transport Topics. But the rejection of the measure “conceivably could have some problems for us,” he added.

WTA believes tolls should not be implemented on existing infrastructure. That decision has always fallen to the legislature, while the transportation commission sets actual toll rates.

The measure was partially aimed at a project to replace the bridge that carries State Route 520 across Lake Washington. The state plans to start collecting tolls on the current bridge next month to pay for a replacement. Tolls will vary by the time of day, which the ballot measure would have prohibited, WSDOT said.

Motorists are likely to use the nearby Interstate 90 bridge to avoid tolls after they’re implemented, Tutton said.

“Our concern is they could conceivably add tolls to the [I-90] Lake Washington Bridge as well,” he said.

Legislators have considered tolls on the I-90 bridge to help pay for the 520 bridge replacement, which would also have been prohibited under the ballot measure.

The traffic diversion to I-90 is also likely to cause congestion on the route, which is an important route for trucking, Tutton said.

WTA has previously supported some tolling measures that would have run into hurdles under the proposal.

The group supported a project to construct a new span on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which was completed in 2007 and is being paid for with a toll on the span.

High-occupancy-toll lanes on State Route 167 between Auburn and Renton are currently the only tolled infrastructure in the state other than the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, WSDOT said. Washington and Oregon are considering tolls to finance the planned replacement of the Interstate 5 bridge crossing the Columbia River between the states.

Rejection of the ballot measure was strong in and near Seattle and Spokane, while rural voters were more supportive. King County, which contains Seattle, voted 62% against it, the strongest rejection of any county, records from the secretary of state show.

Some major planned highway projects are in or near Seattle, including the 520 bridge replacement, high-occupancy-toll lanes on Interstate 405 and the tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.