City council denies funding for McGinn’s proposed Ship Canal bridge study

According to Seattle Met’s Publicola blog, the chairmen of the city council’s budget and transportation committees have denied Mayor McGinn’s request for funding to study a new bridge across the Ship Canal. McGinn proposed the study to assess the viability of building a new bridge for light rail linking downtown and Ballard.

Mayor McGinn had requested $500,000 to fund the study, which was to come out of the savings on the Spokane Street Viaduct. Publicola writes that City Council members Tim Burgess and Tim Rasmussen denied the funding “because, according to today’s announcement, Sound Transit and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) are already studying high-capacity transit for the downtown to Ballard corridor.”

“We must fix what we have, finish what we’ve started and plan wisely for the future for all transportation modes,” says budget chair Tim Burgess. “Our proposal will help balance these needs, which are crucial to keeping people safe and our economy moving in the right direction,” he continues.

According to Publicola, Mayor McGinn issued the following statement in response to today’s denial. “While I am disappointed that Council chose not to leverage our partnership with Sound Transit now to expedite the planning work for a new multi-modal Ship Canal crossing, I will continue to work with council members to include funding for this important project in our 2014-15 budget so that we do not miss out on possible capital funding sources like Sound Transit III.”