Tx Hov Lane

SR 520 Bridge project gets federal approval

The state's plan for replacing the state Route 520 Bridge received federal approval Thursday, which allows the state to move forward with the $4.6 billion project.

The Federal Highway Administration signed a record of decision , allowing the state Transportation Department to make final designs and obtain construction permits.

WSDOT plans to choose a contractor this summer to replace the current four-lane bridge with a taller, six-lane bridge with two general purpose lanes and one HOV/transit lane in each direction. It also would have bike and pedestrian paths.

"When complete, this long-awaited project will give Puget Sound drivers a safer, more reliable commute. The 520 bridge is an essential link in the region's highway system and economy and we look forward to awarding a contract soon," Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said in a news release.

The bridge project includes a new westside segment in Seattle from Interstate 5 to Foster Island and new eastside roadway from Medina to Redmond. Planning has been under way for more than a decade.

Construction would start on the Lake Washington bridge in the spring of 2012.

But a$2 billion shortfall in the state's financial plan means the bridge's most controversial segment -- the westside portion, including Portage Bay bridge and Montlake interchange -- may not get built until years after the floating bridge is finished.

The state planned to have already started tolling the current span to raise about $1 billion toward the project. But technical glitches and problems with the tolling contractor , Texas-based ETC Corporation, forced the state to postpone that plan. Tolls will be collected electronically with vehicle transponders or by photographing vehicle license plates.

The new floating bridge is expected to be ready for traffic in December 2014. The westside approach and Portage Bay bridge wouldn't be finished until at least 2018.

DFW BBQ - HOV lanes in DFW being converted to tollways

ARLINGTON –Tom Coughlin looks forward to the day when high-occupancy-vehicle lanes are a relic of the past on America’s roads, like leaded gasoline and emergency call boxes.

“HOV lanes were a stupid idea to begin with, and in practice they have been a disaster,” said Coughlin, a real estate broker who lives in downtown Dallas. He said he has never heard an argument in favor of HOV lanes, other than from “the bureaucrats, consultants and blow-up-doll manufacturers who defend it.”

He may not have to wait long. The car pool lanes, which rose to prominence during the energy crisis of the 1970s and have become a common in major metro areas nationwide, are becoming obsolete.

Transportation planners in Dallas-Fort Worth and other regions, who until just a few years ago were still planning to aggressively build and expand their HOV networks, are now quickly working to convert HOV lanes into hybrid toll lanes. Under that concept, the lanes would still be separate from a freeway’s main lanes, but drivers of single-occupant vehicles could use them by paying an electronic toll.

Carpoolers could still use the managed toll lanes at a discount.

Denver, Houston, Minneapolis and San Diego are among the metro areas where HOV lanes are being replaced with managed toll lanes.Critics of HOV lanes say this shift in transportation policy is proof that HOV lanes are a failed experiment. They say it was an attempt by government to force Americans to change their behavior and embrace carpooling, despite research showing that nearly 90 percent of adults drive to work alone. .

“They are truly social engineers because it would be their desire to get people out of their cars. But this is not 50 to 75 years ago, when most people came from a common point of origin and drove to a common destination,” said Coughlin. “The likelihood you would find anybody living within a mile of you that you could ever commute with you is remote, not to mention if you ever needed your car for work.

Brick Lane, A Novel

Firefly Lane

Nobody's Perfect, Writings from the New Yorker

The genius of America, how the Constitution saved our country--and why it can again

The Zeroes, My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane