6-8 pm tomorrow at Madison Middle School, it’s your next major chance to find out — and speak out — about the plan to replace the Central Waterfront section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep-bored tunnel. Reps from the state Transportation Department (which is advertising the meeting on WSB to help get the word out) and other involved agencies/departments will be on hand both to answer your questions and to take your comments, to help shape the environmental-studies process required before tunnel-building can begin. It’s open-house format, so drop by any time between 6 and 8. And remember it’s not just about the tunnel itself – these meetings also offer information about component projects (such as the Spokane Street Viaduct Widening Project taking shape alongside the east section of the West Seattle Bridge). In the meantime, three working groups continue meeting to discuss specifics regarding how the tunnel and other components of the “transportation corridor” will work — read on for the latest on what they’re up to:
Two of the working groups have West Seattle representation: Jerome Cohen, Vlad Oustimovitch and Pete Spalding are on the South Portal working group; Chas Redmond and Mark Wainwright are on the Central Waterfront working group.
At the south group’s third meeting last week (as reported here), a surface-road concern that erupted at the second meeting was addressed: Here’s how Oustimovitch explained it when we sent a followup question afterward:
The project team has come up with an alternative that maintains a through connection along E. Marginal Way (the continuation of surface Alaskan Way as it bends around the Coast Guard Station heading south). The three alternatives that were presented at the previous meeting all severed E Marginal in the area of Pier 46, and eliminated the direct waterfront connection to the West Seattle lower bridge. This was opposed by all three WS stakeholders, as well the stadium and the manufacturing industrial representatives. We were all very happy to see that the project team had developed an alternative that uses an elevated section for E Marginal to overcome a the dimensional constraints in the south portal area. It still needs to be fully designed, but it looks promising and should maintain an important alternative to using SR99.
You can see materials from the working groups’ meetings (including presentations with graphics) by going here The South Portal group meets again June 24, 4 pm, Sound Transit board room (map); the other groups’ next meeting dates/times aren’t listed yet but you can watch this page on The Viaduct’s official website.
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