1:56 PM: A high-powered team of elected officials led by Governor Gregoire summoned media to the south end of the downtown waterfront for what was billed as an announcement about the Holgate-to-King section of the Highway 99/Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project. The news: It is 6 months ahead of schedule and demolition will start Oct. 22. More to come.
2:12 PM UPDATE: This was an elaboration on what the Holgate-to-King project leader Matt Preedy had announced at the South Portal Working Group meeting on Wednesday (here’s our coverage; no other newspeople were there). While he had reported the work ahead of schedule, he didn’t say how much ahead of schedule, but said timelines were being revised. So today came the details, with Governor Gregoire joined on a stage in the work zone (top photo) by Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond, King County Executive Dow Constantine, City Councilmembers Sally Clark, Jean Godden, Tim Burgess and Sally Bagshaw, and Port Commissioner Gael Tarleton. (Clark spoke for the City Council, saying that other members might have been there too, except for the fact committee meetings were still under way back at City Hall. Agendas show one committee meeting this afternoon – 2 of its members, Clark and Bagshaw, were at this event; the other two, Nick Licata and Tom Rasmussen, were not.)
The state says the demolition work wasn’t supposed to start till next April, but contractor Skanska has worked so quickly, it’s now going to start in October. The new cost is $3.5 million less, says WSDOT, but Skanska gets about 70% of that as a bonus, so taxpayer savings is $1 million. The new 99 structure you see taking shape along the old one will be opened before that happens, and traffic will be shifted onto it. So does this mean any shorter timeframe for the traffic woes West Seattleites (among others) are experiencing, which intensified with the mid-May reduction? We asked Hammond that question when the announcement segued to Q/A:
(A new WSDOT graphic also reiterates it will still be two lanes each way while traffic is using the new structure.) County Executive Constantine had an interesting stat: Two weeks of West Seattle Water Taxi stats are now in, post-Viaduct Squeeze, and ridership in the commute periods is up 60 percent.
We’re reviewing the “official” materials handed out after the speeches ended and will add more details shortly.
10:47 PM: One more thing to add – Seattle Channel video’d the 20-minute event in its entirety, so here it is:
(Our question to Secretary Hammond is about 17:50 in – the event venue was so noisy, reporters were motioned to the front of the stage to ask our questions, and ours was the first. )
| 15 COMMENTS