business backgrounder | transportation
Building Bridges and Moving Forward
From Spokane to Seattle, the coast to the Palouse,
Washington’s 2015 transportation package is helping
keep businesses and families moving.
Brian Mittge
AWB and employers stood up to help pass Washington’s biggest-ever transportation investment
and reform package in 2015. Now AWB members are still at the table to keep the Connecting
Washington package in place — and to celebrate as new roads and bridges come together.
When 30,000 people strolled along the new Highway 520
floating bridge during its grand opening, they were celebrating
not just the opening of the world’s longest floating bridge —
although the Guinness Book of World Records was there with
a certificate proving just that.
No, the celebration on a sunny April day was also a sign that
Washington is ready to step beyond traffic gridlock by investing
in real and ongoing transportation improvements.
It’s the philosophy AWB brought to the Legislature during
three years of negotiations that culminated last June with
passage of the state’s first major transportation package in a
40 association of washington business
decade, a 16-year, $16 billion package known as Connecting
Washington.
While lawmakers on both sides of the aisle worked together
on the package, the state’s employers provided much of the
leadership and momentum to get it passed.
That support was on display at the 520 bridge opening.
Microsoft President Brad Smith was one of the day’s featured
speakers. Standing at a lectern in the middle of the 7,708-footlong bridge, with a gentle wind rippling the waves on Lake
Washington just a few feet away, Smith called for celebration
— and continued work to improve the state’s infrastructure.