Alaskan Way Viaduct
From More Perfect
BackgroundWashington State Governer Chris Gregoire released her indecision on December 15, 2006. [1] The Alaskan Way Viaduct is an elevated section of Washington State Route 99 that runs along the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle. It is the smaller of the two major traffic corridors through Seattle, carrying up to 110,000 vehicles per day. Interstate 5, the city's other major traffic corridor, handles about three times as many vehicles. The viaduct runs from S. Nevada Street in the south to the entrance of Belltown's Battery Street Tunnel in the north. The viaduct, which takes its name from Alaskan Way, the surface street it runs next to for much of its length, was completed on April 4, 1953, with capacity for 103,000 vehicles per day, encompassing one quarter of Seattle's daily North-South traffic. Its route follows that of previously existing railroad lines. The Issue: Rebuild, Replace or Repair?After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed (with considerable loss of life) the similarly designed Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland, California, some Seattleites came to doubt the viaduct's structural integrity. Those concerns were magnified after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, which damaged the viaduct and its supporting Alaskan Way Seawall and required the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to invest $3.5 million in emergency repairs. Experts give a 1-in-20 chance that the viaduct could be shut down by an earthquake within the next decade. Since the Nisqually Earthquake, semi-annual inspections have kept the viaduct open, but have also discovered settlement damage that continues to worsen. The viaduct also repesents a severe safety risk as a rupture of the Seattle fault, which runs under the viaduct, has a high risk of liquifying the earth underneath the viaduct and causing the viaduct to pancake, as happened in recent earthquakes Kobe, Japan and Los Angeles. |
Bypass Tunnel or "Tunnel Lite"This approach, advocated by the city council, the mayor's office, downtown businesses, allied arts, and other organizations, would remove the viaduct and use rebuild money towards a 4 lane tunnel with surface street improvements. Transit + StreetsThis approach, advocated by the People's Waterfront Coalition, would remove the viaduct and replace it with an improved surface street grid throughout the city and increased transit options. It has been ruled out by the mayor, city council, state legislature, and the governor. Other Options |
