Renton is an enviable – and not-so-enviable – spot on the region’s transportation grid.

Two state highways, State Route 167 and Interstate 405, provide the city with close-in freeway access. Interstates 5 and 90 are not that far away, taking travelers as far south and as far east as they care to go in the United States.

It’s not necessary to take a stormed-racked bridge over Lake Washington to get to Seattle.

On the other hand, SR 167 and I-405 are two of the most-clogged freeways in the state. And when those freeways stall, the backups spill onto downtown Renton streets.

But help is one the way, now and into the future.

And how well those projects work to free up the two freeways and ease congestion on Rainier Avenue could play an important role in changing the traffic flow on two heavily used downtown through streets, South Second Street and South Third Street.

Today’s Renton Reporter includes a comprehensive special edition –

Navigate the Future – produced by Sound Publishing and its Reporter newspapers that explores the past, present and future of the region’s transportation system.

The edition includes reports on the multimillion-dollar projects to increase capacity on I-405 and to turn Rainier Avenue into a safer, pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare.

The I-405 improvements, including new lanes and new ramps serving Talbot Road, will not only help move regional traffic but have the added benefit of removing cars from city streets that try to avoid those freeways when the going gets tough, according to a key City of Renton transportation official.

For example, traffic that now exits at Bronson Way or SR 169 to use city streets to reach Talbot Road/Benson Highway will within two years remain on the freeway to take the new half-diamond interchange near City Hall, said Fred Hahn, the deputy administrator for the city’s Public Works Department.

“That is one finite and specific benefit that we will see,” said Hahn.

The same is true for the major improvements the state is planning or at least envisioning for the often-clogged intersection of I-405 and SR 167, Hahn said.

The city will continue to press for implementation of the I-405 master plan, said Hahn.

What’s not in the planning stages, but is important to the city of Renton, is regionwide bus rapid transit, said Hahn

“We remain vigilant on that,” Hahn said.

Also drawing the city’s vigilance is the future of the now-closed Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail corrior that runs north from Renton. There’s talk of using that corridor for light rail; the city prefers regional bus service, Hahn said.

“We don’t believe those high speeds would be that sustainable that close to our residents,” Hahn said.

Hahn points out that Sound Transit “didn’t have many things” for Renton. However, there is about $50 million in Sound Transit dollars that could go to a railroad corridor – if some sort of partnership is formed, Hahn said.

“If that parternship doesn’t materialize by 2011, that money can go to bus rapid transit,” he said.

Renton so far isn’t linked by rail to the Link light rail that runs from Seattle, through Tukwila and soon to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Studies for a Renton to Burien light rail won’t start for five or six years, he said.

However, the city did receive a “pleasant surprise” in recent days, Hahn said.

County Executive Kurt Triplett’s budget now includes a bus RapidRide route between Renton and Burien that will connect Renton to the Sounder commuter station at Longacres. It would also link Renton to the light-rail station in Tukwila.

That tie-in would include the downtown Transit Center and possibly even The Landing. Such a bus line could start as early as 2013, Hahn said.

All this work on the regional transportation system comes as the city is working on a downtown plan, Hahn said, making it a good time to figure out how the regional and local transportation pieces could fit together.

For now, it is thought that motorists will use the new Logan Avenue that now goes past the Boeing plant and The Landing to skirt downtown streets, Hahn said.

That also opens up the possibility of looking at how other downtown streets are used, including the one-way South Second and one-way South Third, which in essence are the continuation of State Route 900 through downtown, Hahn said.

One idea? Turn those into two-way streets. The idea is controversial, Hahn said, and has had pros and cons when considered in the past. But, it’s being talked about.

But nothing is going to happen with those two streets for two to four years to see how traffic will flow through downtown once the impact of Logan, Rainier and 405 improvements is fully understood, he said.

“This is not a simple thing,” he said. “The politics of it may be more daunting than the actual technical elements.”

But the idea is to make the two streets more pedestrian-friendly, like the goal for Rainier Avenue. Such streets are called “complete streets,” he said.

Of course, all of this work will take money, at a time when gas-tax and sales-tax revenues are declining at all levels of government. Street projects compete for all city revenue just like other projects and services.

The City of Renton has adopted a six-year transportation plan valued at about $128 million. Right now, only $54 million of that plan is funded, including the improvements to Rainier Avenue, the largest of the projects.

Even some of the money the city assumes is available is at risk, Hahn said.

Other projects with partial funding are the extension of Southwest 27th Street/Strander Boulevard and improvements to the Northeast Third/Northeast Fourth Street corridor into the Highlands.

There is $7 million for street and arterial repaving. And, Hahn said, “we would always like to do more sidewalks.”