State Court Rejects Kemper Freeman I-90 Lawsuit Again

Ed. Note: This post was written by Venice Buhain.

The State Supreme Court has rejected Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman and the Eastside Transportation Association's attempt to bring a lawsuit blocking Sound Transit from using the lanes of Interstate 90 for its East Link light rail project.

The East Link light rail plans include converting the center reversible high-occupancy vehicle and bus lanes of Interstate 90 into a rail bed dedicated to light rail. HOV vehicles and buses will be diverted to lanes on the main parts of the freeway. The project to open the HOV/bus lanes on the I-90 outer roadway is scheduled for completion by Sept. 2016.


According to the suit filed by Freeman, former State Senator Jim Horn, the Eastside Transportation Association, which advocates for road-based transportation instead of rail, and others, the plan to convert the center lanes violates the state constitution's requirement that the state vehicle fund be used for highway purposes only.

According to the Seattle Times, the majority of the court disagreed that the plan violated the state constitution, and agreed with Sound Transit that the agency has reimbursed the Washington State Department of Transportation for the use of the reversible lanes with its projects to put HOV lanes in both directions in the main roadway.

Justices James M. Johnson and Charles Johnson disagreed with the majority. James M. Johnson, wrote in the dissent, "The absurdity of this assertion will further destroy the trust in government promises to our citizens whose gas taxes and registration fees will now be accessible for nonhighway projects through elaborate contracts and back room agency agreements." 

You can read a copy of the State Supreme Court Decision on the state courts website.

In a decision in March 2012, the high court declined to block the I-90 plan because the agreement between Sound Transit and the Washington State Department of Transportation had not yet been made.

Sound Transit's East Link is slated to connect Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond to Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport via light rail by 2023. Construction is scheduled to start by 2015.