🚦 A Green Light for the Quiet Zone - Bingen June '26 Round-up

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🏛 June 2026 Bingen Municipal Round-Up

Agencies Covered: Bingen City Council (June 2 and June 16, 2026). Bingen runs all its land-use business through the Council itself; it has no separately-agendized planning board.
The Bottom Line: Two big, long-running infrastructure projects took real steps in June: the replacement Columbia River bridge reached 60% design, and the railroad Quiet Zone got its engineering team. Meanwhile the state handed Bingen a stack of new housing rules, most of which a small "partially-planning" city like Bingen is exempt from.
The Vibe: Grateful but wide-eyed about cost. Council kept celebrating the outside money flowing in for the bridge and Quiet Zone while wincing at the numbers on the page.

🔎 What Changed

• Council awarded the Quiet Zone engineering contract to Gray and Osborne (reported not-to-exceed $255,000) and authorized the BNSF preliminary-engineering agreement (reported ~$50,000), moving the rail-crossing project from funding into design.
• Council adopted the 2027-2032 Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program (Resolution 2026-008) and authorized a TextMyGov contract for emergency text alerts to residents.
• Council signed a host-site agreement with Forth for a free e-bike lending library, with a Bingen station at Daubenspeck Park.

⚠ What Escalated

• The HNTB team brought the replacement bridge's 60% design to Council, and the conversation turned pointed on the planned SR-14 roundabout and on the sheer size of the numbers.
• Fire Chief Spratt reported wildland fire is trending about a month ahead of schedule, after the worst rainstorm he has seen in Bingen since 1996.
• Regional emergency-management funding is short: the Mayor said the fees Bingen, Goldendale, and White Salmon pay together do not add up to a fair professional wage.

🧭 What's Next

• July 7: the Quiet Zone engineering scope and budget return to Council after WSDOT sign-off (and the June 16 minutes come up for approval).
• June 30: deadline for Bingen to adopt building-conversion code to stay compliant with state law.
• July / August: the city submits its comments on the bridge's 60% design (all disciplines in July, substructure and foundation in August).
• This summer: a 2026 budget amendment is coming; work on the 2027 budget has begun.

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Bingen City Council

(June 2 and June 16, 2026)

🌉 The New Bridge, at 60% Design

The project team for the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge replacement (HNTB) walked Council through the 60% design submittal on June 16 and asked the city to be its community "champions" rather than its plan-checkers.

• The current bridge dates to 1924 and rates about 7 out of 100, with narrow lanes, no shoulders, and no bike or pedestrian access.
• The replacement sits about 150 feet downstream: a fixed-span steel plate girder bridge on concrete piers, with two 12-foot travel lanes, 4-foot shoulders, and, on the west side, two 5-foot directional bike lanes and an 8-foot sidewalk.
• Design touches: dark-sky-compliant lighting, two pedestrian overlooks, and a static barrier between traffic and the bike-and-pedestrian lanes, with those lanes engineered to double as an emergency-vehicle bypass when needed.
• Washington approach: a roundabout at Hood River Street and SR-14, designed at 25 mph with chicanes and truck aprons, a two-stage pedestrian crossing, and a possible plaza with an interpretive panel on the southwest corner.
• Oregon approach: a tie-in at Marina Way and Button Bridge Road, a connection to the historic trail, and side plazas. The toll booth is removed.
• Schedule: geotechnical drilling wrapped in June; the city's design comments are due in July (all disciplines) and August (substructure and foundation); plans complete spring 2027; in-water construction begins October 2027; the bridge opens in 2031, with demolition of the old bridge starting late 2031.

On the money. As of July 1, the port's toll agreement sends all toll revenue to two buckets: operating and maintaining the existing bridge, and a replacement reserve fed by the September 2023 rate increase. The team reported the reserve now holds "just under $10 million," on the way to a "$15 million" threshold needed to unlock "$105 million in TIFIA" federal financing, which they expect to reach by next summer. That timeline is tight: the authority's own June update flagged how it was preparing to tap TIFIA loan reserves just to pay invoices while an insurance snag stalled its in-water test-pile program. One council member summed up the mood on cost: "the unexplainable large numbers that I see in all of this just are mind-boggling to me. But again, as it's spread amongst the citizens of Washington, not just our residents, so I'm grateful for this, but wow."

On the roundabout. Council pushed on the SR-14 roundabout, citing a nearby roundabout residents already complain about. As one member put it, "bigger trucks are basically driving on the brick apron and people are calling here left, right, and center to complain why a roundabout, we don't need this, it's too small." The HNTB team said the design speed is 25 mph, that the center truck apron is modeled and built for trucks to track over, and that the geometry is essentially WSDOT's call because SR-14 is a state highway: roundabouts are "their number one solution." The team said it plans to meet with trucking companies through the Mount Adams Chamber to "ease their fears that we've designed it with them in mind." On the deliberately narrow 4-foot shoulders, an engineer explained the logic of not inviting people to stop for photos on the bridge: "if we gave an eight-foot shoulder, you're going to get people stopping, getting out, trying to take pictures... that just is a bad recipe."

The 60% milestone is the next beat in a project the Dispatch has tracked from its construction go-ahead and record of decision through this spring's funding and design work. What Council was actually asked to do in June is telling: not to redline lane widths, but to become explainers. The design is now locked enough that the real work is community trust, and Council's own roundabout skepticism is a preview of the questions residents will bring. The authority-side detail on funding, tolling, and schedule runs in the Dispatch's dedicated HRWSBA coverage.

🚂 Quiet Zone: The Engineering Team Is Hired

The rail Quiet Zone, funded last year with $2.2 million in Connecting Washington money, got its engineer on June 16.

• The city's RFQ drew a single response, from Gray and Osborne, by the June 5 deadline. Because the funding is state, not federal, WSDOT Local Programs confirmed there was no requirement to re-advertise.
• Council voted to award the project to Gray and Osborne, then voted separately to authorize the Mayor to sign the contract pending final WSDOT review.
• The contract covers preliminary design at the Walnut Street and Maple Street crossings, phased to 65%, 95%, and 100% to line up with the BNSF consultant's scope: project management, survey and mapping, geotechnical (PanGEO), regulatory coordination, environmental permitting and cultural investigation (Archaeological Services), utility data, and hydraulic analysis.
• The not-to-exceed figure is $255,000, built from $72,794 in direct labor, a WSDOT-negotiated 186.37% overhead rate, a 28% fee, and sub-consultant costs. Staff stressed the city is billed only for work actually done. Scope and budget return to Council July 7.
• Council separately authorized the Mayor to sign the BNSF Preliminary and Engineering Agreement, estimated at $50,000, which staff flagged as "conservative" with "a fair likelihood that the cost will exceed" it. City Attorney Chris Lanz reviewed both agreements.

This is the step Bingen's multi-year Quiet Zone push has been building toward through the RFQ, the Senator King funding meeting, and the May 19 local-agency agreement. The recurring theme is cost creep on a project made of other people's money: staff openly noted that if either the Gray and Osborne or BNSF number runs over, it means more WSDOT paperwork, not a hit to Bingen's budget. Worth watching whether the July 7 negotiated scope trims the "everything and its dog" first-pass estimate.

🏘 Housing & Land Use: What Olympia Sent Down

On June 2, Administrator Krista Loney gave Council a "Preemptive State Law Briefing" on the latest round of state housing mandates, and the news for Bingen was mostly that it is exempt.

• Because Bingen is a city inside a partially-planning county (Klickitat), the new state requirements for co-living housing, a two-ADU-per-lot minimum, and transit-oriented development do not apply.
• Bingen is already compliant on middle housing and unit-lot subdivision.
• Bingen does still need to adopt code for building conversions (deadline June 30, 2026) and for residential use in commercial/mixed-use areas (deadline December 11, 2027).
• Councilor Dale Grinstead-Mayle asked City Attorney Lanz to explore inclusionary zoning, forcing developers of multi-unit buildings to reserve some units for households at 60 to 80% of median income. Lanz's answer: the enabling statute (RCW 36.70A) has limited enforceability in a partially-planning GMA county, so it is "not possible in Bingen." The minutes note Grinstead-Mayle "should be commended for his efforts on this topic."

This sits inside Bingen's longer housing story (the STEP-housing siting ordinance in April, the Lois Lane middle-housing protests). Nearby White Salmon has been wrestling with the same state middle-housing push, where a four-units-on-one-lot proposal drew sharp density debates this spring. The through-line is that Bingen's "partially-planning" status is a double-edged sword: it shields the city from mandates its small staff would struggle to implement, but it also strips away the very tool a councilor wanted for affordable housing. It is also the reason Bingen has no separate planning commission on its meeting calendar: land-use decisions, from short plats to the Critical Areas Ordinance to the 2027 periodic update, come straight to this Council.

🚦 Traffic Safety & Getting Around

• Council adopted the 2027-2032 Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program (Resolution 2026-008) after reviewing and ranking every project.
• Council reached consensus on a package of new stop signs (Franklin at Maple; Jefferson at Walnut; Alder at Jefferson; Walnut at Humboldt; Alder at Lincoln; upgrading the North Walnut/Jefferson yield to a stop; and exploring a painted stop bar at West Lincoln and Alder), and asked staff to study dropping the citywide speed limit from 25 to 20 mph. In public comment, resident Brian Mattingly asked for a stop sign at West Jefferson near his home and said that while overall traffic is down, drivers are "still doing it," cutting corners through town.
• Council authorized a host-site agreement with the nonprofit Forth for a free e-bike lending library, funded by a WSDOT grant awarded in January. Bikes rent free for anywhere from two days to a month, riders must be 18 or older, and the operator, E-Bike Multnomah Falls (owned by White Salmon's Taylor Midian), handles charging. The Bingen station, a branded shipping container, goes on the northwest corner of the Daubenspeck Park parking lot at 400 West Steuben, kept to that corner to preserve closer parking by the old winery building; other locations serve White Salmon and Skyline Hospital. If the grant is not renewed by June 30, 2027, the bikes go to local users.

📟 Talking to Residents

Council authorized the Mayor to sign a forthcoming TextMyGov contract for SMS emergency alerts: $1,000 to set up, then $2,000 a year for 10,000 texts. Mayor Kelsey Ramsey and Councilor Grinstead-Mayle came out of a training convinced the ability to reach residents in an emergency was worth it, and Loney noted the system is web-based, so no app is required. It is the second change this year to how Bingen reaches residents: in February, Council dropped the Xpress BillPay payment portal over high fees and low adoption.

🚒 Fire, Property & Housekeeping

• Fire: Chief Carl Spratt reported 35 May incidents (3 in Bingen, 32 mutual aid), a fire in Wishram, and heavy storm calls (downed powerlines, a landslide at the end of Lois Lane, power-outage damage at the White Salmon Library). He called it the worst rain in Bingen since 1996 and warned wildland fire is running about a month early this year.
• Gorge Heritage Museum: testing found lead in the museum paint; basement tile and mastic tested negative for asbestos. This feeds the six-month vacation clause in the museum's lease and the new Building Committee's remediation planning.
• Grants and gear: RMSA approved funding to replace the knocked-down radar speed sign, and a $4,600 RMSA Loss Prevention grant will put backup cameras on a fire engine and a Public Works vehicle. The Bingen Fire FEMA Assistance to Firefighters application was going in that week.
• Budget: Loney reported Bingen is trending toward a balanced 2026 budget; a 2026 amendment is coming later this summer and 2027 budget work has started.
• Regional emergency management: Mayor Ramsey flagged that the interlocal funding for the Klickitat County Department of Emergency Management is short: the fees from Bingen, Goldendale, and White Salmon together are not enough to fund a professional at a fair wage. Loney will compare notes with neighboring mayors.

🎨 Public Comment (June 16)

The Mount Adams Chamber of Commerce director (carried in the dossier as Tammara Tippel) thanked sponsors for the "patriotic windsocks" now lining downtown ahead of the Fourth of July, and cleared up a small mystery: the "kissing bench" at Daubenspeck Park was not stolen, just collected by its artist at the end of the public-art cycle. James Szubski of Margie's Outdoor Store has bought the "big-eyed bluegill" fish sculpture as a permanent install, and the Chamber is seeking a sponsor for one more piece. She also thanked city crews for the healthy new Maple Street trees and for cutting back dry grass at the museum ahead of fire season, prompting a note "for the record" that Administrator Loney did some of that weeding herself.

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⚠️ Editor's Note: Broader Context

• "Partially-planning county." Under Washington's Growth Management Act, Klickitat County only partially plans, which changes what state housing preemptions bind the cities inside it. That is why Bingen is exempt from the newest co-living, ADU-minimum, and transit-oriented-development rules, and also why the county-level inclusionary-zoning tool in RCW 36.70A is not enforceable here.
• Whose money is it. Both marquee projects, the bridge and the Quiet Zone, run largely on state and federal dollars. That is why Council can sign a $255,000 engineering contract and a $50,000 rail agreement in one night while still calling the numbers "mind-boggling": overruns mean more paperwork with WSDOT and BNSF, not a direct hit to Bingen's small general fund. The bridge's toll structure is the exception, a genuinely local revenue stream now pointed at a federal-financing threshold.
• Bridge financing. TIFIA is a federal low-interest loan program for transportation projects. The bridge team's "$15 million unlocks $105 million" framing means the local reserve has to hit a qualifying threshold before the cheap federal financing kicks in.

🛠 Jargon Buster

• TIP (Transportation Improvement Program): the rolling six-year list of road and transportation projects a city adopts to stay eligible for state and federal funding.
• Quiet Zone: a rail corridor where, after safety upgrades at crossings, trains no longer have to routinely sound their horns.
• PEA (Preliminary and Engineering Agreement): the contract with the railroad (BNSF) that lets engineering and coordination work proceed at its crossings.
• RFQ: a Request for Qualifications, how the city solicits an engineering firm.
• ADU: an accessory dwelling unit, a small secondary home on a lot.
• Middle housing / unit-lot subdivision: duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and the mechanism to sell them on individual lots.

How to Join & Learn More

• Bingen City Council meets the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m., in person and on Zoom. Agendas and minutes: bingenwashington.org (AgendaCenter).
• Next meeting: July 21, 2026, 6:00 p.m. The June 16 minutes went to Council on July 7; the Quiet Zone engineering scope and budget have not yet reappeared on a posted agenda.

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