Roads in the right--and wrong--direction
From a road less traveled by wildlife to a road that threatens a unique gem, our state's highways were the focus in August.
Ten-year-old Emily Shepard of Auburn expressed her support of wildlife crossings on I-90 for the Bridging Futures Contest that asked school kids to design billboards celebrating the expansion project's wildlife crossings.
From a road less traveled by wildlife to a road that threatens a unique gem, our state's highways were the focus in August.
On a rainy August 11, Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond led a ceremony near Gold Creek to initiate construction of Phase 1 of the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project. Supporters of the project from freight interests to conservationists - including I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition - huddled under tents to celebrate and applaud a banner that unfurled from Interstate 90 reading "moving more than people."
In part because of the flood of encouragement from Conservation Northwest supporters, this first phase includes construction of a wildlife underpass at Gold Creek. Other key improvements to the highway also improve safety and reduce avalanche closures along Lake Keechelus. Wildlife crossings are important in this area, where we led The Cascades Conservation Partnership to secure nearly 45,000 acres of vital wildlife habitat on both sides of I-90, vital to wildlife connectivity.
Construction of Phase 1 is expected to continue until 2016, while the remaining 10-miles of the project remain unfunded. “There is clearly still work to do to ensure the entire project is completed,” stated Charlie Raines, director of the Coalition. “We have a proposal with wide support now to add another 1.5 miles to this first phase if we could gain funding. This would extend the construction to the end of the lake with key traffic improvements and include the wildlife overpass at Rock Knob.” Score one for wildlife and driver safety!
But the celebrations for wildlife habitat coexisting with highways ended there. On August 26th, Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond took the podium again, this time to celebrate completion of Phase 1 of the Cross Base Highway. As they applauded the completion of the Spanaway Loop connector road, the audience looked out over some of the last and largest remaining oak woodland prairie in Puget Sound, which the Cross Base highway would destroy.
The next phase of this project proposes to build four brand new freeway lanes straight through this vital habitat for western gray squirrels, Mazama pocket gophers, Mardon skipper and Taylor checkerspot butterflies, and horned larks. State Representative Tom Campbell motioned over this unique ecosystem, not seeing it for the treasure it is, and said, "I have my eyes through those trees to I-5."
Luckily, the highway is no done deal. The money spent to date on the connector road was all that the project had. Just how much congestion the road might relieve is highly debatable, and the error-wrought EIS presented for the project is still contentious.
Opponents of the project, including Transportation Choices Coalition, local business owners, citizens, Washington Native Plant Society, Tahoma Audubon, and ourselves, attended the event to highlight the controversy that surrounds this unnecessary and destructive project. Local business owner and project opponent Jen Hanson wished aloud, "I hope today is the celebration of the end of the Cross Base Highway." We will work hard to have that be true.
