Community Corner

Interstate 90 Lawsuit to Stop Light Rail Sent Back to State Supreme Court

Eastside Transportation Association will appeal the March ruling by Kittitas County Superior Court that dismissed its lawsuit to block Sound Transit from using Interstate 90 for light rail.

A ruling that dismissed a group's lawsuit that would have blocked the use of the Interstate 90 bridge for Sound Transit light rail is headed to the State Supreme court, the group announced.

The Eastside Transportation Association, which includes Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman, former State Sen. Jim Horn, five trucking companies, and others, announced Tuesday that the association instructed their attorneys to appeal .

Sound Transit plans to connect Seattle's Central Link with Bellevue and the Eastside's future , via building the light rail line along Interstate 90 where the carpool lanes currently are. Sound Transit is expected to start construction of East Link in 2015 or 2016 and launch passenger service in 2023.

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The suit challenges whether the exclusive use of light rail on an interstate highway paid with gas tax is allowed under Washington's 18th Amendment, according to their press release:

The suit was filed by ETA on behalf of all Washington State citizens, based on the strict protection of the State’s 18th Amendment, which disallows gas taxes paid for by road users to be used for anything other than the construction and maintenance of roads – which is defined as “highway purposes” in the Amendment.  Previous Supreme Court rulings have upheld this view, and determined that “rail” programs are not a highway purpose.

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Both the State and Sound Transit are asserting that the two center lanes are “not presently needed” for highway purposes to justify this transfer.

“Ask any driver who suffers the daily misery across the bridge if they see any ‘un-needed’ highway,” Horn said in a prepared statement. “Mercer Islanders need to be advised that they will be losing their special access to Seattle, if and when these lanes are surrendered to Sound Transit.”

According to the group, they also are concerned that a placement of Sound Transit Rail on the Center Roadway could put the entire I-90 Bridge at risk of failure. With rail, the bridge will be operating at 98 percent weight capacity. Parts of two floating bridges, the I-90 Bridge and the Hood Canal Bridge, have sunk in the past, according to its press release.

According to Horn, the “2004 Record of Decision,” a transportation planning agreement signed by 27 different cities and agencies stated that these two lanes would be needed until the year 2025.

“People need to know that, in the end, the Bridge will be 8 lanes, instead of the planned 10-lane configuration. The reversible lanes will be lost, further aggravating congestion, and Mercer Islanders will be losing their special access onto I-90,” he said in the prepared statement.

The I-90 Bridge doesn’t belong to just Seattle-area people, he said.

“That bridge belongs to every citizen of this state. We all paid for it.  When eastern Washington trucking slows down, we’re all going to be paying more for our products.” 

Eastside Transportation Association advocates against light rail in favor of bus rapid transit as a faster, more flexible solution for mass transit, Horn told Bellevue Patch last year.

The State Supreme Court declined to hear the plaintiff's case last year, saying . The Seattle Times reports that the suit was then filed in Kittitas County Superior Court, where .


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