Planners in Washington state considering options for expanding the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge have discovered what might seem like a contradiction: Building a bridge with more lanes would create more delays for drivers.

According to a report in The Seattle Times, the Translake Executive Committee - which includes representatives from Eastside cities, Seattle, Sound Transit and the state Department of Transportation - is looking for ways to finance an expansion of the bridge, which crosses a waterway to the north and east of Seattle. State planners told the group Dec. 10 that making the new bridge eight lanes would result in longer travel times than expanding it to six lanes.

That's because such a large percentage of the travelers crossing the bridge are commuters headed to downtown Seattle, all of whom exit off Washington Highway 520, which runs over the span, onto I-5.

Les Rubstello, engineering manager with the DOT, said the more lanes on Highway 520 feeding into I-5, the bigger the backup.

"It's like having a narrow door and a bunch of people trying to get into it," he said.

The smaller number of lanes would also reduce the cost of studies related to the bridge, The Times reported. And state officials have revised the cost of the bridge downward, from $5.9 billion to $1.9 billion.

However, drivers crossing the structure may have to pay tolls, despite the lower cost. One proposal would have drivers traveling between Redmond and Seattle paying as much as $1.60 to cross the bridge.