I call upon our Washington state leaders at the local, state, and federal levels along with all governing agencies to reconsider the implementation of R8A by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).
On June 1, 2017, WSDOT’s reconfiguration of a critical part of the I-90 corridor, Washington state’s major east-west throughway between Seattle and Spokane, is scheduled to open. The reconfiguration has been named R8A.
WSDOT will be adding an extra lane on both the eastbound Lacey V. Murrow Bridge (6,620 ft.) and the westbound Homer M. Hadley (5,811 ft.) floating bridges, the second and fifth longest bridges, respectively, in the world. Lanes will be reduced from the Federal Highway Association (FHWA) recommended width of 12 ft. to 11 ft. Through the Mount Baker tunnels, lanes are further reduced to 10.5 feet.
Shoulders will be eliminated in the tunnels and reduced to 2, 4, 6 and 8 feet at various points along the highway. The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) recommends a minimum of at least 8 feet of shoulder on highways, and 10-12 feet for highways with 250 trucks per hour (R8A Lane and Shoulder Configuration on I-90: www.mercergov.org/files/Future_I-90_X-Section_Oct2015.pdf).
What does R8A’s implementation mean for the Puget Sound Region? It means that disabled vehicles and accidents will not have room to properly clear out of the way on the I-90 bridges and tunnels. This will result in blocked lanes of traffic, with little to no room for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and first responders, and a slowed response time to emergency situations.
For evidence of how this corridor of I-90 will soon feel to travel and the myriad of safety issues it will present for the region, the Brent Spence Bridge (1,736 ft.) will serve as a cautionary example and warning. This bridge connects I-75 and I-71 across the Ohio River and is currently listed as our nation’s top infrastructure emergency as the bridge has been deemed functionally obsolete with too narrow of lanes and inadequate shoulders which pose a serious safety threat.
“Updates to the bridge in 1986 added a fourth lane by eliminating the shoulders and reducing the widths of the existing lanes. While some capacity was gained, the lack of shoulders means there is no safe haven for stranded motorists and even minor fender-benders tie up traffic because the crash cannot be moved out of traffic flow. As a result, the existing corridor has a crash rate that is three to five times higher than the rest of the Ohio and Kentucky interstate systems. On average, there are 650 calls for help made by motorists stranded in the corridor each year. From 2004 through 2014, there have been 22 fatalities in the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor” (www.brentspencebridgecorridor.com).
“These responses are not only a great risk to emergency personnel, they also put high demands on Covington’s and surrounding cities’ emergency resources, leaving a significant portion of Northern Kentucky’s river cities residents in jeopardy of delayed responses,” according to Buddy Wheatley, former Covington Fire Chief and attorney with Cook & Logothetis.
WSDOT should not be allowed to violate federal safety standards for drivers and first responders on the I-90 Eastside Seattle Corridor. In addition, R8A is risking the functionality of our region’s vulnerable and very long floating bridges which connect the Port of Seattle and City of Seattle to the region, state, and beyond to the East Coast. Please reconsider the implementation of R8A and please reconsider the closure of the I-90 Center Roadway permanently at the same time on June 1, 2017.
There are too many unknowns and too many risks to not warrant a serious independent safety audit of this entire plan. We need a trial run and evaluation of R8A that includes proper, federally mandated fire safety drills in the Mount Baker Tunnels be conducted, an audit of the region’s NORCOM 9-1-1 response times with R8A configuration, and the option to not permanently implement R8A if it is deemed too dangerous.
Elizabeth Buckley
Mercer Island
