Floating bridge project advances

SEATTLE – A $4.6 billion project to replace the Highway 520 floating bridge and improve the corridor between Seattle and Bellevue is moving ahead.

The Washington Transportation Department released the final environmental impact statement Thursday for a six-lane bridge to replace the four-lane bridge on Lake Washington.

The Federal Highway Administration is expected to approve the project next month, according to the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. Construction would begin next year and the bridge should be completed by 2015, although the whole project may take until 2018.

Work has already begun at the pontoon construction site in Aberdeen.

Tolling is scheduled to start this summer to help pay for the project. Funding is about $2 billion short.

The 48-year-old bridge is the longest floating bridge in the world – more than a mile.