Last year, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) was awarded $20 million in RAISE grant funds to overhaul the north segment of East Marginal Way S. That grant came during the same cycle that the city was awarded $11.2 million for repairs to the West Seattle Bridge via another competitive federal grant program, the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant. However, the department will also take a year off on applying for any new INFRA grants. “Based on the success we had with RAISE and INFRA in 2021, we recognized that we are likely not going to be competitive for these programs in 2022,” Mariam Ali of SDOT confirmed. “We will be using our resources over the coming year to focus on the many other grants that were created in the IIJA [the bipartisan infrastructure law].” RAISE grants are very versatile, funding everything from bus corridor upgrades…

The RAISE grant memo notes that Accessible Mount Baker only needs between $1 million and $3 million to complete planning, actually making it too small to be competitive for a planning grant via RAISE. But if that funding isn’t able to be secured, the city won’t be able to apply for construction funds in future cycles, with the extra funds for grant programs like RAISE only extending until 2026. Given that the planning study for Accessible Mount Baker was completed six years ago, it’s clear this project isn’t as high of a priority as one like East Marginal Way (which started planning around 2015 as well) even though the benefits for safety and encouraging trips to be made by biking or walking are clearly much greater. Right now it looks like Accessible Mount Baker is being strung along to be dangled in front of voters for Seattle’s next transportation levy in 2024. Ano…