Planned Transportation Spending

An examination of Washington’s 2012-2015 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program reveals that road or bridge projects with bicycle/pedestrian components (such as adding sidewalks when reconstructing a roadway) make up the largest chunk of planned spending (28 percent). Of these projects, 66 percent add capacity to the state’s roads or bridges, and 34 percent are road or bridge maintenance projects. Transit projects comprise 27 percent of the STIP. Three major transit projects, the U-Link, the Seattle/Tacoma/Lakewood commuter rail and Sound Transit’s Light Rail Extension project, make up almost 66 percent of all transit spending. New road capacity projects follow at 15 percent. The tunnel replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct accounts for 14 percent of the planned spending. Bridge maintenance/replacement and road maintenance/minor widening each account for 6 percent of the spending. Projects classified as “other” make up 1 percent, as do safety projects and bicycle/pedestrian projects. Bridge capacity expansion projects make up less than 1 percent. share