CONTEST: Let Patch Pay for a Week of Your 520 Bridge Toll

Local commuters have had nearly a year to get used to the toll on the State Route 520 Bridge.

Last December, the Washington State Department of Transportation instituted a toll on the State Route 520 Bridge to help pay for a $4.65 billion plan to improve SR 520 from Seattle to Redmond.

Improvements include landscaped lids over portions of 520, a wider roadway, increased carpool lanes, a bicycle and pedestrian lane and environmental upgrades. The state legislature decided that $2.37 billion of the amount will be paid through state and federal funding and tolls. Where the rest comes from has yet to be determined. The entire project is slated to be finished by 2014.

So perhaps you've gotten a Good-to-Go account, or looked for toll bills in your mailbox, or just rerouted around the bridge in order avoid the toll, which currently is $3.59 at peak hour -- if you've prepaid via Good-to-Go.

So, at Patch, we've decided to mark the occasion by offering to pay for one reader's toll for a week with a prize of $35.90.

After a year of paying the 520 Bridge toll, or finding another route, tell us why you need us to cover your bridge toll for a week in the comment section of this article.

The winner will be randomly drawn from the comments on this article that are left between Nov. 30, 2012 and 11:59 p.m. Dec. 13, 2012.

Full rules are attached to this article.