Metropolitan King County Councilmember Jane Hague today hailed inclusion of several key projects to improve mobility for Eastside residents in the final Roads and plan adopted today by the Regional Transportation Improvement District (RTID) Executive Board.

“I was pleased to cast a vote in favor of a plan that provides necessary East - West connectivity through the I-90 and 520 corridors,” said Hague, an alternate member of the RTID Executive Board.

The Executive Board is recommending to the full RTID Planning Committee the agency’s “Blueprint for Progress”—a coordinated plan to improve critical transportation corridors, improve safety, invest in transit friendly improvements and build new bridges. The goal is to reduce traffic backups and keep people and freight moving in the most congested corridors in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

Among the projects in the proposed plan are those that would increase capacity on I-405 between Renton and Bellevue and improve the 520 and I-90 corridors, including replacement of the ailing 520 bridge.

“I appreciate the effort to complete a solid funding strategy to provide certainty for the entire 520 corridor,” said Hague.

The “Blueprint for Progress” builds on current state investments in roads, bridges and freight routes. It will join with Sound Transit’s Phase 2 transit package to provide voters with a combined Roads and Transit plan to appear on the November ballot.

Today’s Executive Board action sends the “Blueprint for Progress” to RTID’s combined tri-county council planning committee on June 8. The committee will review it and send the final recommended package to the King, Pierce, and Snohomish county councils for approval and placement on the November 2007 ballot along with Sound Transit Phase 2.

Read more about this package on the RTID Web site