Washington State plans rail bypass traffic study

Washington State will do a detailed traffic study of its plan to route passenger trains traveling up to 79 miles an hour through South Tacoma, Lakewood and DuPont, despite previously calling such a study unnecessary, the News Tribune reports. The Washington State Department of Transportation said that it's required to conduct the assessment as a condition for using federal stimulus money to pay for the $91-million rail project.

The study will push back
the projected 2013 opening of the controversial route at least two years,
officials say. If the state wants to capitalize on $590 million from the
Federal Railroad Administration, it must complete the bypass and other passenger
rail improvements along the I-5 corridor by September 2017.

The state plans to form
an advisory team that will review and provide input on the updated study. The
team will include representatives from Pierce County, Lakewood, DuPont and
Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Depending on what the group concludes, additional
safety or other improvements could be required along the 19-mile route, which
could inflate its price tag and stretch the timeline.

Kevin Jeffers, the state’s
project manager on the bypass, said he doesn’t think the assessment will
jeopardize the project, but it’s too early to tell how things may change.

State officials knew they
would have to go through an environmental process after winning federal funds
earlier this year, but nothing this big.

"We didn’t know we’d have
to do another environmental assessment," Jeffers said.

For Lakewood officials,
it was welcome news, even if the additional study was more a product of
bureaucracy than city opposition.

"All we’ve been asking
for is a fair hearing," said Lakewood City Councilman Walter Neary. "This is a
victory for democracy"

Under the plan, Amtrak
trains would rumble through residential neighborhoods, business districts and
busy streets in Lakewood’s east end. Six minutes would be shaved off the Seattle-Portland
train run, which now misses urban areas as it skirts Point Defiance and the
South Sound waterfront.

In 2007, the state won a "categorical
exclusion" from the Federal Highway Administration, meaning it didn’t need a
detailed environmental analysis. Lakewood argued otherwise. The city, along
with suburban ally DuPont, planned to contest the plan during a hearing with
the state Utilities and Transportation Commission in June. That has been
postponed.

Even up until last month,
the state was still moving forward with the project, with hopes to start work
this year. Jeffers says that changed when the state learned it was required to
conduct an analysis under federal railway standards – not highway standards.

He added that the DOT
listened to concerns from the cities, residents and businesses that would be
affected by the project. Now, he said, they get a chance to voice concerns
again.

Transportation Secretary
Paula Hammond agreed. In a Dec. 31, 2007, letter to Lakewood Mayor Doug
Richardson, she wrote that the project’s potential impacts "were not found to
be significant."

In a news release, she
said that while it’s important to take advantage of federal money to expand
rail service, "it is important that we achieve that goal in cooperation with
the cities and local communities along the corridor."

"We will all benefit from
a deliberate, thorough and transparent process," Hammond added.