Thursday, March 5, 2009

Washington's Transportation Stimulus Package is Signed by Gov. Gregoire

This afternoon Governor Gregoire signed the final State stimulus package for roads which amounted to 350 million dollars in federal spending on roads in Washington State. TCC, Futurewise, and WashPIRG released a national report and press release in response to the final stimulus list that was put together by the Governor's office and the State Legislature. Copies of both the report and the press release can be found on our homepage. For a direct link to the report go here and for a direct link to the press release go here.

From the Press Release:
Two of Washington’s projects were highlighted as good projects on this list, the Pierce County I-5 HOV project and the combined I-90 safety and maintenance projects. Two projects, the I-405 expansion project between 195th Ave. and SR 527 and the Yakima Valley Mall interchange were highlighted as bad investments for $70 million or 20% of the state’s stimulus funding for transportation projects. In Washington alone more than 400 bridges are structurally deficient including the SR 520 bridge, South Park bridge and Murray Morgan bridge. These projects would have been very strong candidates for state stimulus spending.

Also check out Erica Barnett's post on the topic: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/03/05/wa_state_stimulus_bill_no_f

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, but if we spent the money on bridges instead of road paving we couldn't put lots of trucks out in front of drivers and raise as many signs about how well WSDOT is spending our money... ;-)

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