Alaskan Way Viaduct: Transit & Streets
From More Perfect
Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct and downtown seawall were damaged by the February 2001 Nisqually earthquake. The seawall must be replaced.
With the Viaduct, however, it’s not so simple. While the Washington State Department of Transportation, managers of the state highway system, would like to replace this segment of their highway with another highway that preserves its current traffic-carrying capacity, there may be a smarter way to provide mobility for Seattle.
- Why a highway? This 1.5 mile stretch of SR-99 is used primarily for trips that start and end within city limits, its former significance as regional highway has been eclipsed by other routes. It may no longer be necessary or appropriate to retain its highway-like form and speeds. In fact, SR-99 is a surface street North along Aurora Avenue and South along 1st Avenue South. Why not pursue a simpler, less expensive solution?
- Megaprojects are expensive and risky. With only 5% of the project cost covered by the federal government, the $4.5 billion estimated bill for the proposed tunnel will be picked up primarily by local and regional taxpayers -- at a cost of roughly $14,000 per household. The cost could be even higher if there are cost overruns, such as those that have plagued Boston's "Big Dig" project.
- This land has incredible potential. Simply put, the downtown waterfront could be Seattle's star attraction. The waterfront has substantial economic, civic, and ecological value, and could be a jewel for Seattle. A shortcut for cars bypassing downtown is a poor use of beautiful waterfront land. Developing a great park with a healthy shore ecology surrounded by dense development is resonant with Seattle’s goals for livability, economic development, and restoring Elliott Bay’s health.
- Future vision. All our planning policies aspire to a more sustainable future transportation system where Seattleites can get around more easily without cars. However, increasing automobile capacity instead of investing in other transportation modes encourages more car usage and ultimately more congestion. This is a golden opportunity to take a significant step toward future goals, since there is so much to gain.
- Global warming. Seattle leads the nation in accepting local responsibility for meeting the Kyoto protocols. Because most of our city's emissions come from cars, achieving our goal will require programs and infrastructure that make alternatives to driving appealing and viable for more people.
- Peak Oil. Many geologists and energy analysts believe that, once about half of the world's oil reserves are tapped, global oil production will decline, causing oil prices to skyrocket. The precise date of "peak oil" is a subject of heated debate, but many believe that it will occur within the next two decades, and possibly much sooner. Seattle's car-centric transportation system already eats up 22% of our personal income, and this will only get worse as fuel costs rise. It may be short-sighted and even detrimental to invest now in infrastructure that assumes, perhaps inaccurately, that car use will continue to grow.
Note: replacing the Sea wall is a completely separate issue from the Viaduct, the tunnel or a surface project. The Sea Wall is rotting out because, well it's sitting in Sea Water and it's basically wood, and whatever our forefathers had lying around. And the wood has been eaten by worms as well as soaked for years in salt water. Who would have guessed?
Anyway everyone talks about the Sea wall as if it were joined at the hip with any of these other projects. The issue is that the city owns the seawall so if the city can join the sea wall project with a state road project, then the state will chip in for the cost. But really, it's the city's problem. It's just that if you tear up the road way with a lot of heavy equipment you might as well also use that same equipment to fix the sea wall, and if you can get someone else to pay part of the cost, great. (if you live in the city..) So when folks talk about a project's cost be sure to extract the sea wall portion out when you are trying to judge it's competitiveness.
