Tacoma Narrows Bridge tolls will drop with the passage of this bill. Here’s how, when

TACOMA, Wash. — State legislators passed a bill that will lower tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Sen. Emily Randall (D-Bremerton), one of the sponsors of the legislation, said drivers of two-axle vehicles should see tolls drop 75 cents Oct. 1.

That means those with a Good to Go! Pass would pay $4.50. The charge for drivers who go through a toll booth would be $5.50.

“We were trying to target with the money as big an impact as we could for working families, commuting families in the district,” Randall said Monday. “… We’re seeing inflation that is impacting our neighbors, and this is a way to put money back into the pockets of hard-working people in our communities.”

The bill transfers $3.25 million from the general fund each quarter, $130 million total, to help pay for the bridge until July 2032. The Legislature adjourned March 10, and the bill was delivered to the governor Friday.

Randall said it gives “the Transportation Commission the authority to lower tolls, which they do based on the funding in the account, and we have strong agreement from House and Senate transportation leadership that the reduction should be 75 cents for two axle vehicles, and we expect to see that in the fall quarter.”

The original bill would have transferred $772 million from the state’s general fund to end tolling on the bridge, The Gateway reported.

Asked about the possibility of revisiting that in the future, Randall said, “I think we’ll keep coming back and seeing what we can do.”

Drivers have paid tolls on the eastbound bridge, the construction of which was financed almost exclusively with tolling revenue, since it opened in 2007.

“We have been paying tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge for a long time,” Randall said in December. “We’ve already paid $780 million, and still have another $770 million to pay off, and that’s going to take another 10 years. I think we need a better deal for our community.”

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