DOT: 520 bridge still floating, but not forever
In an announcement that will come as a surprise to exactly no one who commutes regularly across the thing, state officials noted that the 520 bridge is, well, falling apart. “This bridge is in jeopardy. This bridge is aging. This bridge needs to be replaced,” said one.
Amusing statistic of the day: there are 6,000 feet of cracks in the bridge walls.
Haggling continues over where and how to replace it, and most importantly, how to pay for it. (Alternate viewpoint: one of my neighbors is on record as saying that she wishes the damn thing would fall into the Lake and vanish. But she doesn’t have to commute anywhere.) Latest estimates suggest that, not counting money raised by tolls and what have you, we’d need somewhere between $1.25 and $2.5 billion to pay for it. All told it’ll probably be about a 2 to 3 billion dollar project.
Yeah, that sounds like a helluva lot of money to me too. But look at it this way: Boston’s “Big Dig” cost close to $15 billion. Compared to that, this doesn’t sound so gawdawful.
If there are any local billionaires reading this who’d like to get naming rights on the bridge, step right up and call the DOT. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.
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Typical of how things are done in Seattle — spend countless dollars confirming what we’ve known for years, planning to make a plan, creating committees to review the plan, raising more money to cover the studies the committee will do, spend even more money getting ready to get started, stop everything and reconsider, then get shot down for spending a boat-load of money not getting anything freakin’ done! I’m all for public discussion and plan-making, but at some point you have to s___ or get off the pot! That bridge is going to cost a lot more if we don’t get something started soon…