Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, is pushing for money in the state’s transportation budget to add additional lanes on state Highway 14 with the hopes of easing traffic congestion.
The Republican from La Center is hoping to shift about $30 million in funds to pay for auxiliary lanes on state Highway 14 east of Interstate 205 to Southeast 164th Avenue.
Rivers is championing the effort, even though the project falls outside of the 18th Legislative District, which she represents.
“As someone who asks, ‘What does Southwest Washington need?’ rather than, ‘What does my district need?’ I knew which project would help both my district and our region more,” Rivers said in a statement.
The funding, however, would come from a project in her district that had been approved in the 2015 state’s transportation package.
In July 2015, the governor signed a $16 billion transportation package into law, which raised the gas tax by nearly 12 cents. Many Republican lawmakers criticized the increase in taxes and voted against it. Rivers called it the most difficult vote she’s cast in the Legislature, but said she approved the measure because she felt like it would benefit her district. Because she was at the negotiating table, the 2015 transportation package carved out about $25 million for the Camas Slough replacement bridge.
Rivers called improving state Highway 14 a “more impactful investment for approximately the same cost.”
The reason it wasn’t included in the 2015 legislative session, she said, was due in large part because of former Sen. Don Benton’s unwillingness to negotiate the package. Benton voted against the package and was a vocal opponent.
Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, who now holds Benton’s former seat, said she appreciated Rivers’ willingness to work to shift the funding.
“This particular section of (state Highway 14) is quite the bottleneck, and widening it will give relief to Clark County citizens traveling both east and west,” Wilson said in a statement.
Rivers said she heard from constituents from all over the region who were frustrated with the congestion on the highway. She also heard from many large employers and prospective businesses pushing to make this area a priority.
The Camas Slough bridge replacement project would be put on hold.
In 2016, an average of 87,000 vehicles traveled state Highway 14 between Interstate 205 and Southeast 164th Avenue daily, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
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