VIADUCT MEETING: “Scoping meeting” regarding the project that the state says will replace the south end of The Viaduct no matter what’s decided about the rest of it — 5-8 pm tonight, with the official presentation starting at 6, Madison Middle School.
DINING FOR LITERACY: A portion of tonight’s proceeds at three WS restaurants — Angelina’s Trattoria, Garlic Jim’s Pizza, Talarico’s — go toward a literacy campaign, as part of Page Ahead’s area-wide Dish Up Literacy campaign.
I sense the sneak project here: “the state says will replace the south end of The Viaduct no matter what”
It’s a smart political move. Decide how to deal with this “minor” part of the viaduct. The public won’t even pay attention because it’s not the BIG debate. But whatever is decided here is what WILL be the rest of the viaduct. If the rebuild, tunnel or surface street. Then when they get to the rest of the project, they’ll be too far along with this 40% portion to change course, so even if it costs more money or whatnot, it’s now an “emergency” issue which allows them to get the money any way they feel like without asking the voters if the final design is what they want. Very clever. Divide and conquer! :)
I went to the WSDOT open house at Madison this evening. Overall, the proposal does advance mobility through the lower Viaduct area. There are new on and off ramps from SR-99 to Atlantic St. There are also street grades which go under RR tracks. The design improves freight mobility enormously. It causes cyclists to engage another Spokane St. – Delridge Way 5-way intersection at this juncture. This is bad since presently cyclists basically breeze straight through. That stretch of the city’s bike infrastructure is disastrous and WSDOT really doesn’t do much to improve it. Well, they do, but only in their specific, project, area. Much like the bike path near the Port facilities heading to the Avalon-Beach Drive dead-end is improved. Nice for about 3000 feet but then back to dysfunctional, ugly, dangerous bike path. On the discomfort side is this: Presently there is no through bus route while they are undergoing this destruction/construction job – estimated to start in 2009 and last at least 3 years. RapidRide won’t kick in until 2011. Metro says the best they may be able to do is throw more buses (physical vehicles) into routes which get bogged down so you can at least catch a late bus going nowhere every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes. During this construction, the 12 minutes or so that the 54X and 21X take to get downtown will likely be more like 30 to 40 minutes. When this happens the most effective method will be the one transportation mode WSDOT, SDOT and everyone else doesn’t want you to use – your car. They seem to go out of their way here to make using public transportation so unworthy.
Chas, thanks for the update; we were unable to cover this meeting in person. Very bad news about the “late bus(es) going nowhere.”
Looks like us bicyclists will have to start attending more of these meetings to get our voice heard. Especially if it’s going to create another nightmare intersection. But even with this, it’ll still be faster to bike than bus or drive in any case…
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