(The Center Square) – The Washington State Transportation Commission on Monday approved increases to toll rates on the Interstate 405 express toll lanes and the State Route 167 high occupancy toll lanes.
Drivers using either lanes will see the minimum toll rate increase to $1 and the maximum rate increase to $15. The toll increase goes into effect on March 1.
The commission’s toll rate increase is expected to increase revenues by $1.1 million to $2.5 million with increasing evening tolling and peak hour high occupancy vehicle policies by one hour, to 8 p.m., for a total of $4.8 million to $8.3 million from March through June 2025.
The commission is increasing toll rates to boost funding in order to address shortfalls for recently awarded corridor projects and ongoing funding needs for further improvements.
The Legislature directed the state Department of Transportation to identify strategies to close the funding gap. In response, the department had bids for recently awarded projects for the two lanes came in $275 million over cost estimates and planned funding.
The I-405 and SR 167 corridors are experiencing increased congestion in both the general and express toll lanes. Statistics from October 2022 to October 2023 show that general purpose lane travel times on both corridors increased by three to nine minutes. Express toll lane travel times increased by one to three minutes.
Renton Resident Ricardo Garmendia spoke prior to the toll rate increase approval, saying that while the toll increase is intended to improve traffic on both corridors, it could further worsen traffic on the roads.
“By increasing the tolls, I think that you are going to defeat that purpose – people are going to be moving towards the regular lanes and it’s going to increase the congestion at that point,” Garmendia told the WSTC.
Currently, the average daily toll rates are $2.41 on I-405 and $3.36 on SR 167 high occupancy lanes.
Karl Westby, SR 167 master plan team member, anticipates that roughly 4% to 8% of all drivers using the corridors would pay the maximum toll rate of $15.
More statistics presented to the WSTC showed that 77% of daily trips on SR 167 high occupancy lanes are either free or under 75 cents.
According to the commission, toll rates have not been adjusted since they were first implemented on SR 167 over 15 years ago and over eight years ago on I-405.
