Week of Dec. 26, 2006

Looking back at 2006

For the King County Department of Transportation (KCDOT), 2006 was a year split between planning for the future and meeting the demands of the present. It encompassed responding to multiple major storms, limited new construction, keeping up with repairs on aging infrastructure, and anticipating ways to expand the county’s transportation network.

Each of KCDOT's four divisions had a busy workload in 2006. Here’s an overview for each:

King County Metro Transit

With a tax measure on the ballot in November, the Metro Transit division spent a good portion of 2006 planning on what an infusion of dollars could do to make the county’s bus system more convenient and more efficient. The “Transit Now” sales tax increase was approved by more than 56 percent of the voters in November 2006, and the first of the service improvements will occur in February 2007. Overall, the one-tenth of one percent sales tax increase will fund Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in five key corridors, more frequent service on high-ridership routes, new service in rapidly growing neighborhoods, and partnerships with other agencies or businesses to maximize ridership and better serve expanding employment centers.

Under its regular work plan, Metro’s Service Planning group led the efforts to revamp service in South King County. Many public meetings were held to help Metro revise the network of bus routes in South King County to make service to and from Seattle more efficient, create connections to other major work centers, and improve transit reliability in heavily congested corridors. The changes went into effect in September.

Earlier in the year, Metro opened its new Issaquah Highlands Park-and-Ride garage and debuted the new Route 218 – both of which have been well-used by bus passengers in the past 10 months.

In January, Metro celebrated the one-year-on-the-road anniversary of the new fleet of hybrid articulated buses. The first-year report revealed the hybrids were not only logging better fuel economy than their conventional diesel cousins. But, they were also delivering on their promise of lowering greenhouse emissions and providing solid mechanical reliability.

King County Road Services Division

Starting in January 2006, the Road Services Division fought an endless battle against the elements. The year started with 30-plus days of rain and massive mudslides. By the time construction season rolled around in late spring, the division was still facing more than $7 million in storm repairs from the previous winter. Those repairs had barely been made when the region was hit with a triple-weather whammy of floodwaters, snow, and wind in November and December. Clean up and repairs from those late-2006 storms will continue for some time.

The Roads Division also tried to keep up with repairs to aging bridges, culverts, and the seawalls on Vashon Island. It meant many short-term repairs to the South Park Bridge and the Dockton Road and seawall, along with an overhaul of the under-road culverts near Duvall. For 2007, the division plans to spend more than $100 million to preserve and protect the transportation network throughout unincorporated King County.

New construction projects in 2006 included: the completion of the York Bridge near Redmond and the start of the Tolt Bridge replacement project near Carnation; new traffic signals at the busy intersection of Novelty Hill Road and West Snoqualmie Valley Road; sidewalks and pedestrian improvements in White Center; and the annual paving program to smooth out more than 60 miles of roads in unincorporated areas of the county.

King County International Airport

The big project at the King County International Airport (KCIA) at Boeing Field in 2006 was the rehab of the main runway.

That runway is one of the longest in the state and supports the movement of billions of dollars worth of manufactured aircraft, air cargo, general aviation, test flight operations and passenger service in the region each year. The project allowed the airport to continue to safely and efficiently support the more than 500 aircraft and 150 businesses based at Boeing Field for years to come. The project was completed in just 20 days last summer and used more than 116,000 tons of asphalt to resurface the 10,000-foot runway.

King County Fleet Administration Division

The Fleet Division continues to lead the region and the nation in innovative ways to maintain vehicles with environmentally friendly methods.

The division was named as one of the top ten in 2006 by Fleet Equipment Magazine, and recognized as being one of the greenest fleet operations in the nation, given its large inventory of hybrid vehicles and use of alternative fuels.

This was underlined in November, when the Environmental Protection Agency awarded the Fleet Division and several partners money to purchase hybrid utility trucks. King County was recognized at that time for its efforts in heading up a consortium of local and state government agencies interested in taking hybrid vehicle technology to the next level with the production of medium and heavy-duty work trucks that use less fuel and produce fewer harmful emissions.

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