No More Free Ride to the Eastside: 520 Tolls Are Coming

Well Governor Gregoire's on a bit of a rampage, isn't she! First she announces that, replacement or no, the Viaduct is coming down in 2012. Now, an announcement that you'll have to pay a toll to cross 520 as soon as next year.

The Times reports that the toll would be around $6 at peak hours.

Why tolls? The state needs $2 billion to pay its share of the new 520 bridge, scheduled to open in 2018. And since voters refused to tax themselves (defeating Prop. 1 last year), tolls are a last resort.

How will tolls work? The Times explains:

The method of collecting tolls on the old 520 bridge would be similar to the way it's done on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Most users there pay electronically, without stopping at a toll booth.

Motorists prepay into a state account, called "Good to Go." When cars approach the bridge at normal speed, an overhead device reads a transponder sticker on the windshield and money is automatically deducted from the account. Some toll booths exist for those without transponders.

Dino Rossi, Gregoire's presumptive opponent in this year's gubernatorial election, doesn't oppose the tolls, but wants a bigger bridge. A spokesman for Rossi tells the P-I: "This is what she calls leadership? It is disappointing that she is only willing to consider a six-lane bridge that cannot be expanded. We need a forward-looking proposal that will consider future capacity; otherwise the new bridge will be obsolete and insufficient by the time it opens."

Photo by Alan Cordova from the Seattlest Flickr Pool.