A statewide transportation package remains under discussion in the special session of the Washington State Legislature. Each contains a different project that could potentially ease highway traffic into Issaquah. Former Issaquah City Councilman and state Sen. Mark Mullet said May 4 that competing transportation packages from the House and Senate could potentially be compromised into one that doubly benefits the city.

Mullet paid a visit to the Issaquah City Council last Monday to provide an update on the legislature’s progress in special session, as well as to provide what he called his “best guess” on how things would finish out.

The Senate version of the package includes additional lanes on Interstate Highway 90 between Issaquah and Bellevue, with digital traffic management systems. The system was reduced from a lanes-spanning series of signs to lamppost devices in a cost-saving measure, Mullet said. The number of noise-reduction barriers associated with construction were also reduced, he said.

The House version of the package includes improvements to the interchanges at I-90’s exit 25 in Snoqualmie and the State Route 18 interchange in Maple Valley.

Mullet said the separation of the projects across the competing packages was “almost done intentionally” due to the cost of both. Each project set carries a nine-figure price tag.

“(The separation of projects across packages) was almost done intentionally,” Mullet said. “We couldn’t get them both in either package, so we wound up putting one in each with the idea that at the end … when we’re negotiating, we could get both included.”

The House budget also earmarks $5 million for Issaquah-Fall City Road.

A study of I-90’s Front Street interchange for potential improvements will likely be safe in either package, Mullet said.

Mullet added that the SR-18 project could indirectly benefit Issaquah traffic by providing Maple Valley drivers attempting to reach I-90 a more attractive alternative to taking Issaquah-Hobart Road and Front Street.