Incomplete Picture for Viaduct Funding

In a Seattle PI guest editorial titled Complete Picture for Viaduct Funding Davd K.Y. Tang and Steve Leahyin urge Washington residents to contact their congress critters and ask them to support federal funding for the Seattle Viaduct project.

Why, though, would anyone pick up the phone, write an email, etc., based on the incomplete information in this piece? How much money are they asking for? What will be the total cost of the project? How will the so called regional share be funded? Why should federal money be involved at all? Could the entire project be funded by tolls? If you want action paint a complete picture!

Also, given the $11 billion price tag that was just disclosed for the proposed Seattle monorail I seriously doubt that people will be willing to deal with these projects one at a time. They need to be presented in full context including all the rail projects, the 520 bridge project, Allen’s trolly and any other transportation work that will be competing for funds concurrently.