Maintenance has been shortchanged so long that urban highways in Washington state are becoming worse than in other states, a new analysis says.
Some 34 percent are in poor condition, as are 22 percent of the state’s rural highways, said Rocky Moretti, researcher for the industry-supported group TRIP in Washington, D.C., whose report was released Tuesday at tripnet.org. Moretti gave a news briefing in Seattle alongside leaders from the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, and pro-business Washington Roundtable.
An estimated 21 percent of state bridges are functionally obsolete, and 5 percent are structurally deficient, the report says, while the Washington State Department of Transportation estimates that 110 state-maintained bridges will remain in poor condition for at least five years, the report says.
“Seattle and the Puget Sound is well known for its levels of traffic congestion,” he said, but lately the second problem of crumbling bridges and roads has become acute.”You have to preserve the existing system, but unlike a state where there’s very little growth occurring, you can’t turn your back on modernizing and expanding the system to accommodate economic growth,” Moretti said.
