We’re still working on our summary of the briefing we liveblogged earlier – where state/city/county reps presented the 8 “scenarios” now under consideration to replace the “central waterfront” section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct – but in the meantime, we wanted to let you know the meeting materials including artist renderings have just been posted online; find them here (look for Scenario A through Scenario H).
Maybe I missed it, but none of the “scenarios” involve the only reasonable and affordable solution: a retrofit. I guess the developers and construction companies have done a good job keeping that alternative off the radar.
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From what I see in their details, all of these “scenarios” available at the link would utterly destroy the ability to reasonably travel through the downtown area, effectively cutting the city in two forever. The area between the ship canal and Spokane Street would be a solid mass of idling cars and trucks.
PSPS – if you get a chance to look at our long liveblog of the full briefing
https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=8551
(toward the end)
the retrofit is off the table, according to the reps today. They say it would cost 80% of the cost of building something new, among other reasons. I am writing more on that in the summary that will be published later tonight with quick grabs of all of the “scenarios” (small parts of the PDFs on the state page) as well as the ruled-out options.
“Cutting the city in two forever.”?
Come on. Is I5 being torn down as well? If I5 moved at a reasonable rate and didn’t bottleneck in the heart of Seattle the loss of the viaduct wouldn’t be felt so keenly.
If you are truly a W. Seattle resident and SR99 user you’ll have noticed that the heaviest traffic is during peak commute times. And the majority of the peak commute traffic is heading into the city, not heading further north. Will the loss of the viaduct snarl the daily work commute further? Sure. Will it impact that Sat afternoon W. Seattle to Ballard drive? Probably not as much.
OH: What you’ve done is list a lot of things that, if they weren’t so, the loss of the viaduct wouldn’t be the travesty that it will be. So what? If I had wings, it wouldn’t matter either. Of course the loss of the viaduct won’t have much of an impact during the times it is used the least. But you don’t design traffic arterials for the minimum possible usage. (Well, maybe in Seattle they do.)
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I drive the viaduct daily. Some traffic exits at Seneca, more exits at Western. But a lot of traffic goes through the tunnel to “Allentown” and on over the Aurora bridge. Every one of those routes would be gone, relegated to pot-holed surface streets with lights every few blocks. It’s a joke to expect that to work, and thinking I-5 will handle the overflow is crazy.
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No, the loss of the viaduct will divide the city in two. Just think back to the days after the 2/14/01 earthquake.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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