Patty Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine joined community leaders on a tour of 14th Avenue South and struggling businesses affected by last June 30 closing of the South Park Bridge. The Friday, July 30, tour brought them to Muy Macho Restaurant, to Gurdev Singh's South Park 76 Gas Station, and Sea Mar Community Health Center(s).

Sen. Patty Murray announced that she's included $3 million for the South Park Bridge replacement in a Senate transportation, housing and urban development spending bill. She also has pledged to support the project's application for grant money that will be awarded under the $600 million TIGER (Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery) II program.

"This is an important first step toward pushing the federal government to pick up their portion of the tab for replacing this critical bridge," Murray said in a news release. "State, county and local government have shown that they are ready to get behind replacing South Park Bridge and I'm going to work ensure that the federal government is too."

Replacing the bridge will cost about $155 million, with about $25 million already spent on land acquisition and other costs. The closure interrupts a main route over the Duwamish River into South Park's main business district.

Sen. Murray was asked by the West Seattle Herald to share some of the reactions business people there shared with her.

"A woman told me her transportation had increased to an hour each way to get to her job at Capitol Hill, and the Sea Mar Clinic has seen a number of patients not making it to their appointments which means this is affecting their health," said Murray. Another woman told me her business was off 50-percent and is just hanging on until a new bridge is built."

"Sometimes the West Seattle Bridge is so congested and traffic is diverted south on West Marginal Way to the 1st Avenue Bridge and all the surface streets leading into that corridor get congested too," Constantine told the West Seattle Herald. "It took me almost an hour to get from West Seattle to downtown. Local, retail, and manufacturing business are impacted by this problem. The next morning I took the Water Taxi.

"We're making good progress," he added, regarding collecting funds for a new South Park Bridge. "We're focusing in on that application for that TIGER II grant we're submitting very soon. I think we put ourselves in the best position to secure the grant money but it's still a big 'ask' considering how many folks across the country need funds so we're going to be pushing very hard to get the deal done."

"I think the purpose of today's visit is to show that there is an understanding of the negative impact on the local community because of the bridge closure," said Dagmar Cronn, President of the South Park Community Association. "I think the Senator has been working behind the scenes and now publicly with the earmark. It's a result of all of the coalitions' work and neighborhood's work over many years and the jurisdictional coalition that's come together to show support from the City, County, State, and on and on."

During the press conference at the event, Constantine said he thought a new bridge could be constructed in two years rather than the three-year time span that has been discussed by officials.

LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN FOR TIGER II

Bill Pease, president of the South Park Bridge Committee, said they seek letters of support for King County's TIGER II grant proposal.
"I heard through the grapevine that the Mercer grant was awarded on the basis of just 60 letters. We can do better!" he said.

The letters don't need to be very wordy, just tell how the bridge closure has affected quality of life, or increased traffic or lessened accessibility.
Here's the tricky part...

The letters should be addressed to:
The Honorable Raymond H. LaHood
Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20590
Re: South Park Bridge Project--- TIGER II grant application

But then they need to be sent to:
admin.roads@kingcounty.gov

The County will then package them and submit them all at once.