A transportation spending package calling for a 10-cent gas tax increase cleared its first hurdle on Monday, clearing the way for a debate and vote on the House floor with less than a week remaining in the 105-day legislative session.

The House Transportation Committee approved the $8.4 billion package by a 16-13 vote along party lines. In addition to raising the gas tax, the proposal would increase various weight fees and call for higher vehicle registration and title transfer fees.

“We are going to be moving forward and making sure the economy is creating jobs,” said committee chair Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island). “I think it’s a perfect time. Even though it does raise taxes and does raise fees, there are going to be places where people can point and say this made a difference in our lives.”

(more…)

The Senate on Friday unanimously passed what budget writers call a “bare bones” transportation spending package that includes $8.7 billion to fund existing projects around the state.

The vote comes a day after a compromise was reached on the Interstate 5 bridge bridge project over the Columbia River between Portland and Vancouver. Senate Republicans have voiced concerns over the project – specifically the proposed height of the bridge and a built-in light rail component.

The agreement calls for withholding about $82 million for the project in the budget until the U.S. Coast Guard decides whether to issue an important project permit. The Coast Guard, which has expressed concern over the bridge’s height, is expected to make a decision on the permit in September. The deal also calls for an audit of the Columbia River Crossing project by the state’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee.

(more…)

House Democrats have narrowed a transportation tax proposal that would pump $8.4 billion dollars into new projects around the state.

The plan is about $1.6 billion less than a package unveiled in February, but still relies on a 10 cent a gallon increase on the state’s gasoline tax. Other revenue-generating plans have been dropped from the new package, including a car tab tax and a fee on bicycle purchases.

Read a summary of the revised proposal here.

The package targets improvements to State Route 167, funding for the Interstate 5 Columbia River Crossing project and the state ferry system. Last week, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood urged lawmakers to fund the CRC project or risk losing federal funding. Some Republicans in the Senate take issue with design elements in the bridge project and have vowed to stop it.

In a statement released Tuesday, Senate Transportation Committee Chair Sen. Curtis King (R-Yakima) said he was willing to discuss the House proposal.

“Members of both parties can agree to the critical need to invest in our transportation system and though I don’t agree with everything in this package, I agree that we need to have this conversation,” King said.

With less than two weeks remaining in the 105-day legislative session, backers of the proposal are running out of time to get the plan approved. It must first be approved in the House Transportation Committee before it reaches the floor.

Read the full statement from the House Democrats on the transportation package here.

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was in Olympia on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to approve funding package for the Columbia River Crossing project.

The $3.4 billion project will widen Interstate 5, replace bridges between Oregon and Washington and connect light rail to downtown Vancouver. The project is dependent on a funding commitment from both Washington and Oregon to secure federal money – and a deadline is looming.

“This is the 11th hour. It’s time to fish or cut bait,” LaHood said during a news conference with Gov. Jay Inslee Wednesday morning.

The project faces vocal opposition from some in the Republican-controlled Senate. They take issue with the proposed bridge’s height and addition of light rail.

Sen. Don Benton (R-Vancouver), a vocal critic of the project, said he came away from the meeting with LaHood with little hope for compromise.

“The Secretary was immovable on his position that it’s now or never,” Benton said.

LaHood said the state needs to come up with about $460 million to move the project forward. Oregon lawmakers have already approved $450 million for the CRC.

Watch the press conference below:

Senate leaders on Wednesday released what they term a “bare bones” transportation budget that would fund existing projects, but stops short of approving funds for some of the state’s biggest transportation proposals.

The bi-partisan budget calls for $8.7 billion over the next two years, and includes funding for a tunnel to replace Seattle’s Alaska Way Viaduct and maintaining current service levels for the state ferry system.

Senate transportation leaders said they are waiting to see if a revenue package is approved by the House before making promises to fund any new projects. Last month, House Democrats rolled out a $10 billion transportation package that would increase taxes on gasoline and increase car tab fees.

“We need to see what comes out of the House. We don’t count our chickens before they hatch,” said Tracy Eide (D-Federal Way), co-chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

The budget also funds a study that looks at the feasibility of merging the state ferry payment system with the state Department of Transportation’s Good To Go program.

Here are a few highlights of the budget the Senate unveiled this morning:

• $200 million to complete construction of the $3.1 billion deep-bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct on State Route 99
• $60.5 million for concrete preservation on Interstate 5
• $22 million to make the ferry “Hyak” more efficient and fully funding construction of the state’s second 144-car Olympic-class ferry
• $4.1 billion for planned highway improvement and preservation construction;
• $5.3 million for 21 new Washington State Patrol troopers and $16.4 million for State Patrol’s mobile communication upgrade.

The world’s largest tunnel boring machine arrived in Seattle Tuesday.

The arrival marks the end of a two week journey of some 5,000 miles from the manufacturing plant in Japan where the machine was built.

Named after Bertha Knight Landes, Seattle’s first female mayor, Bertha is five-story-tall, $80 million dollar machine commissioned by the Department of Transportation to assist in the construction of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project – a 2-mile tunnel that will carry traffic on State Route 99 under downtown Seattle.

“It’s going to set a lot of firsts around the nation and around the world,” said Linea Laird, program administrator for the project. “Everyone is watching us as we move forward with this.  There’s nothing easy about the city of Seattle and boring something this large underneath it.”

Even though the equipment has arrived, it will still be a while before digging begins. Unloading the monstrosity alone will take several weeks, and it still has to be put together.

“It’s in 41 different pieces,” said Matt Preedy, deputy program administrator for the project. “The largest of those pieces weighs almost 900 tons all by itself. Over the course of the next two weeks, each one of those 41 pieces will be offloaded onto the pier, where it’ll make its way slowly several hundred yards over to the launch pit.”

Bertha will be assembled in the launch pit — a process that could take about two months. Officials said the actual digging should begin during the summer, and that completion of SR 99 is scheduled for late 2015.

Watch Bertha be unloaded on this live web cam. You can also follow Bertha on Twitter here.

The House Transportation Committee tackled several motorcycle bills Tuesday, including one that would allow bikers to continue through red stoplights if the light’s sensor fails to recognize the motorcycle.

Ron Friar, who has been riding motorcycles for more than 50 years, said he has been stuck at these lights before.

“I sat through three complete cycles, with cars lined up behind me, the light would not change,” Friar said, recounting a recent experience at a light in Olympia. “It took 10 minutes of sitting there with traffic building up. When I finally pulled out of the lane, the car behind me pulled up and the light changed.”

Friar said by the time the light changed, there were cars piling up in lanes behind him, creating dangerous congestion.

Speaking in opposition to the bill, Rob Huss of the Washington State Patrol said that what most bikers do in that situation is the same as what all motorists are supposed to do when they approach an uncontrolled intersection.

“We’ve all sat there for a period of time, exercised due care caution, made sure it was clear and proceeded on our way as necessary,” Huss said.

But putting that into statute, he said, would not be a good idea. He said doing so would create liability for the state and letting motorcyclists proceed through red lights could cause confusion for other vehicles.

Allison Albert of the Association of Washington Cities said there is a system for reporting lights that are not working properly.

“A bill that the Legislature passed in 2009 required that all traffic control signals routinely and reliably detect bicycles and motorcycles, and also clearly mark the detection areas,” Albert said.

The committee also discussed three other bills relating to motorcycles. One would add motorcycles to the list of vehicles that can use reserved highway lanes, such as carpool lanes. Another would allow bikers to pass pedestrians and bicycles in the same lane. And a third would allow private motorcycle skills training classes, which have previously had a price cap of $125, to charge students for the full cost of the program.

No action was taken on those bills Tuesday.

Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama)

Rep. Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama) has apologized for an email to a bike shop owner asserting bicyclists cause pollution by creating greater emissions of carbon dioxide when they ride.

Orcutt started receiving criticism from the bicycling community after an email he sent over the weekend surfaced on the internet. The email addressed concerns a bike shop owner had about a transportation package introduced by House Democrats, which includes a $25 tax on the sale of a bicycle over $500.

Orcutt the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee, said bicyclists release higher levels of CO2 as they ride because of their increased breathing.

“Also, you claim that it is environmentally friendly to ride a bike. But if I am not mistaken, a cyclist has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider. Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride.”

A copy of the email quickly made the rounds after Bike Tech owner Dale Carleson shared it on the internet. Bike Tech has stores in Olympia, Tacoma and Lakewood.

On Monday, Orcutt apologized for his the comments in an email to Bikeportland.org editor Jonathon Maus:

“First of all, let me apologize for the carbon emissions line of an e-mail which has caused so much concern within the bicycle community. It was over the top and I admit is not one which should enter into the conversation regarding bicycles. Although I have always recognized that bicycling emits less carbon than cars, I see I did a poor job of indicating that within my e-mail. My point was that by not driving a car, a cyclist was not necessarily having a zero-carbon footprint. In looking back, it was not a point worthy of even mentioning so, again, I apologize – both for bringing it up and for the wording of the e-mail.”

The $25 bike fee was part of a plan House Democrats unveiled two weeks ago. It’s a small part of an overall package that would raise $10 billion over the next decade. Orcutt has said he is opposed to the majority of the proposal, which calls for 10 cent gas tax increase.

On Monday’s “Legislative Review,” we cover debate over a proposal that would allow local governments to charge drivers up to $40 a year in car tab fees to pay for transportation projects.

We also have details on a proposal related to the Josh Powell murders. Powell was a suspect in his wife’s disappearance when he killed himself and his two young sons, Charlie and Braden, during a supervised home visit. The bill would adopt recommendations from the Department of Social and Health Services that came as a result of an investigation into the Powell murders.

On Wednesday’s “Legislative Review,” we have details from a proposal by House Democrats to raise the gas tax by 10 cents to pay for transportation projects. We also cover a gun control bill that aims to protect the victims of domestic abuse. Under the proposal, people with a restraining order against them would be required to give up their guns while the order is in place.

Plus, we have highlights from a debate over paid sick leave. Seattle passed an ordinance last year requiring businesses with more than five employees to provide paid sick leave. Some state lawmakers want to expand that law statewide — while others want to limit it, or repeal it altogether.

The future of driving in Washington state was the topic of a work session in the House Transportation committee on Wednesday. Self-driving cars aren’t expected on the highways anytime soon. But when they do arrive, legislators will need to craft new laws to regulate the automated vehicles, or AV’s, on state roads.

“The technologies for fully autonomous vehicles, that you can just tell where to go, are still more than a decade away,” said Jessica Lang, legal counsel for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

But much of the technology already exists, including adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, lane detection and traffic jam assist.

The technology is coming at an increased pace, said Anthony Levandowski, an engineer with Google working on their self-driving car project, which has 7 driverless vehicles that have gone more than 140,000 miles.

“We think there’s a huge opportunity for safety improvements from new technology that can be added to the car,” Levandowski told the committee via Skype.

With the technology coming along at such a fast pace, experts say legislation needs to be prepared to regulate the cars. Three states — Nevada, California and Florida — have already passed laws regulating AV’s, Lang said.

“There are issues that need to be addressed early on in any discussion about autonomous vehicles,” said Mel Sorensen of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. “Issues relating to accountability, responsibility, liability and a legal framework that would apply in the event of an accident.”