"NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 47.01 RCW to read as follows:
     The department shall reconvene an expert review panel for the purposes of updating the work that was previously completed by the 2006 panel on the Alaskan Way viaduct and Seattle Seawall replacement project and to ensure that an appropriate and viable financial plan is created and regularly reviewed. The expert review panel must consist of no more than three members and must be selected cooperatively by the chairs of the senate and house of representatives transportation committees, the secretary of transportation, and the governor. The expert review panel must report updated findings and recommendations to the commission, the transportation committees of the legislature, the governor's Alaskan Way viaduct project oversight committee, and the joint transportation committee by October 2011, and annually thereafter until the project is operationally complete. Upon receipt of the expert review panel's updated findings and recommendations in October, the joint transportation committee must consider the findings and recommendations at a public meeting, which includes hearing an evaluation of whether the financial plan for the Alaskan Way viaduct and Seattle Seawall replacement project is feasible and sufficient to complete the project as described in the final environmental impact statement. The joint transportation committee shall forward any concerns with the financial plan that are presented at the meeting to the governor. When reconvening the expert review panel, the department must be attentive to cost and consider ways to minimize expert review panel expenditures, such as the use of teleconferencing. Anticipated expenditures related to the expert review panel must be included in the panel's findings and recommendations reports."