What is the history of the proposal chosen to build a second bridge as opposed to simply adding another deck to the current 1950 bridge?
The current Tacoma Narrows Bridge project beginning dates back to legislation enacted in 1993 under the Public Private Initiatives Act (PPI Act) by the State Legislature. This legislation authorized the Secretary of Transportation to solicit and select up to six demonstration project proposals. The thought was that our state needed to consider other ways to develop and finance projects as current revenues would not be sufficient to keep up with the State’s transportation needs (source laird 220637 letter). In January of 1994, the WSDOT advertised a request for public private proposals. Ultimately, the concept proposed by United Infrastructure Washington, Inc., for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was selected to proceed under the PPI Act. In 1995, Legislation was enacted which amended the PPI act and ultimately required a public vote of the project. In preparing for the advisory vote, the department conducted a comprehensive analysis of traffic patterns and economic impacts to define the geog
