During the past several months, the city of Kent has evaluated the potential of forming a local improvement district (LID) to fund railroad crossing improvements (grade separations) at three locations in the Kent Valley.
They include the crossing at the South 228th Street and Union Pacific (UP) railroad tracks, and the crossings of both the UP and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BN) tracks on South 212th Street.
These railroad tracks have nearly 60 trains each weekday, forcing a cumulative crossing closure of about two hours. Completion of the proposed Pacific Gateway Terminal will add an additional 23 oil and coal trains each day on the BN rail line, increasing the daily crossing closure time by 64 minutes.
As the fourth-largest warehouse and manufacturing center in the United States, providing seamless routes for Kent’s significant truck traffic is a priority.
That’s why over the past 10 years, we’ve pursued and successfully secured more than $20 million in grants to help complete these grade separations; however, the combined project cost is nearly $80 million. A LID could have filled this funding gap.
As we evaluated this option, we gathered comments from property owners at two different open houses, where we heard there was little support to form a LID.
Given that, we’ve had to make some challenging decisions:
• At this time we have decided not to pursue a LID for the crossings of the UP railroad tracks at South 212th or South 228th Streets. We will continue to request state funding of the South 228th/UP project, as it ties into the regionally significant SR 509 freeway extension – a proposal the Legislature will likely discuss this session.
• We are evaluating the potential for a smaller LID to fund a portion of the South 212th Street/BN crossing. The BN tracks carry higher train traffic than the UP, including most coal and oil shipments passing through Kent. Grade separating the road would result in substantial benefit to nearby property owners. We would return to property owners and the Kent City Council with a proposed LID only after additional grant funds are provided by our state and/or federal funding partners.
The LID was proposed to save state funding that was set to expire. I am pleased to announce that the funding for the South 228th Street/UP and South 212th Street/BN projects has been put “on hold” until after the legislative session to give us time to secure other funds.
Tim LaPorte is the city of Kent Public Works director. Reach him at 253-856-5500 or tlaporte@kentwa.gov.
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