The city of Kent plans to kick in $1 million to try to get a $4.5 million grant to help pay for the extension of Veterans Drive to connect with State Route 509.
The City Council authorized Mayor Dana Ralph on March 6 to sign a letter of commitment for the matching funds as part of Kent’s application to the Puget Sound Regional Council. The project is part of the state Department of Transportation’s Gateway Program.
Construction on the highway extension isn’t expected to start until 2020 or 2021, and won’t be open for traffic until 2025 or 2026, which includes just phase one on SR 509 between Interstate 5 and 24th Avenue South in SeaTac to provide airport access, according to state DOT officials. The second phase to extend SR 509 to South 188th Street in SeaTac, where the highway currently ends, wouldn’t be completed until about 2030.
The state Legislature passed a $16 billion statewide transportation package in 2015 – including funds to extend SR 509 between SeaTac and Kent to I-5. But state officials revealed last year the SR 509 project needs more money, including local funding from cities impacted by the freeway extension.
“It will connect to Kent just north of Kent Des Moines Road,” said Kelly Peterson, city Public Works special projects manager, in a Feb. 26 report to the council’s Public Works Committee.
City staff applied for the grant in February. The Veterans Drive project ranked first in front of the South County Area Transportation Board’s Technical Advisory Committee, Peterson said. The board advanced the project to the next stage of regional competition.
The project still needs approval from the King County Project Evaluation Committee, the Regional Project Evaluation Committee and the Transportation Policy Board before it goes to the Puget Sound Regional Council’s executive board.
Peterson said the Transportation Policy Board, part of the Puget Sound Regional Council, is expected to vote on the project on July 12. If it recommends approval, the full council is expected to vote for it as well.
Veterans Drive, aka South 228th Street, would be extended under I-5 to connect with SR 509 and I-5. The new freeway is expected to provide connections with the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma, access to Sea-Tac Airport, and relieve congestion at the I-5 and the Kent Des Moines Road interchange, which will be reconstructed.
An 11.9 percent per gallon jump in the state gas tax will cover about $1.6 billion of the $1.9 billion project to extend SR 509 nearly 6 miles between Kent and SeaTac, and to extend State Route 167 about 6 miles between Puyallup and Tacoma in an effort to improve connections between freight corridors as well as urban centers, according to state DOT documents.
But the state’s counting on the remaining $310 million for the two highway projects to be covered by toll lanes ($180 million) and local contributions ($130 million), which is where Kent comes in. State and local jurisdiction officials are still figuring out how much each local city might need to contribute. The ports, federal grants and local business groups are also expected to come up with funds.
Council members were surprised and disappointed when they found out last year legislators included local funding as part of the Gateway Project.
“This is unprecedented in state history where they have gone to the local community for a match,” Councilman Dennis Higgins said at the Public Works Committee meeting about the state asking for help to build roads. “It doesn’t make local government officials very happy, but it is written into the state transportation funding package. This is the best case scenario we can come up with. We are rightfully demanding the region participate because it is a regional project.”
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