New state office focuses on urban mobility & access

Assistant Secretary Patty Rubstello

The Washington State Department of Transportation has set up a new office based in the central Puget Sound region to tackle coordination of a dizzying number of projects coming online in the next six years.

At the last Transportation Policy Board meeting, Transportation Secretary Roger Millar described changes to WSDOT’s organizational structure that will help deliver projects and coordinate work with cities, counties and other partners.

The office for Urban Mobility and Access represents a realignment of existing resources within WSDOT that will focus on coordination of projects within the fast-growing PSRC region, which encompasses King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties.

The long list of projects active over the next six years include: building a new Colman Dock, rebuilding Alaskan Way, removing the Viaduct, a new streetcar on First Avenue, building the downtown tunnel, heavy maintenance on I-5 and Aurora, major investments on I-405 and 520, and adding light rail across I-90.

“That’s all happening at the same time in terms of capital,” Millar told board members. “Management of mobility is about enhancing our operations planning. It’s about enhancing our construction coordination with our partners. It’s about enhancing our incident response capability."

Assistant Secretary Patty Rubstello will lead the office, which is organized into three divisions: Regional Transit Coordination (co-located at Sound Transit), Management of Mobility, and Tolling.

WSDOT staff also presented information on the state facilities action plan for I-5 preservation and operational improvements, HOV policy and managed lanes, seismic preparedness and local priority state highways.

This information was requested by the Transportation Policy Board to help inform the update of the Transportation 2040 plan.