Next meeting set for the group working on our side of The Viaduct

| Alaskan Way Viaduct | Transportation | West Seattle news

That’s one of the sketches shown at the last meeting of the Alaskan Way Viaduct South Portal Working Group, which had asked for better visual representations of the new tunnel route as it crossed under the current viaduct and approached the seawall. When we covered the most recent meeting of this group – tasked with discussing and vetting plans for how traffic will be handled south of the viaduct’s Central Waterfront section — its next date hadn’t yet been set, but now it has: March 23, 4 pm, Puget Sound Regional Council board room (1011 Western Avenue). At the January meeting, it was promised that this meeting will include more on upcoming construction staging, as well as how various scenarios would affect biking, walking and transit times. The public’s welcome at these meetings; here’s a map to PSRC offices.

Eddie March 2, 2010 (6:28 am)

Is it just my eye, or are the roadways in that tunnel picture leaning to the left?

jim March 2, 2010 (8:26 am)

Wow looks earthquake proof.

OP March 2, 2010 (9:15 am)

For all the renderings and simulated videos, we could’ve had a damn Viaduct tunnel/road/what-the-hell ever by now. 10 years—10 years!—this has been going on. Enough, enough, enough! Get the effing thing built already….

Alki Area March 2, 2010 (9:56 am)

What IS earthquake PROOF I’d like to know…LOL

A giant double deck bridge? Those never collapse in earthquakes. Sorry to be real, but nothing is ‘earthquake proof’, just as sturdy as can be done for the cheapest $ we want to spend.

Remember business school 101….cost, speed or quality…you can have two.

WSpeeps March 2, 2010 (11:45 am)

I will NEVER use that tunnel. Never.

KBear March 2, 2010 (12:50 pm)

No one will. They’ll never get it built.

mark March 2, 2010 (3:30 pm)

I am right there with you KBear. It might get built if the Viaduct falls down, maybe. They don’t want to spend the money to support fallen police officers (see McKissack Act) how will they vote to spend THOUSANDS times that amount? Tell us when its FULLY funded and we can start planning, until then, its no more than an idea.

OP March 2, 2010 (4:22 pm)

No one will. They’ll never get it built.

True. Until the next Nisqually quake hits, collapses the thing and kills scores, THEN they’ll get off their collective a%*es….

br March 2, 2010 (9:41 pm)

I’d rather have a chance at living on a bridge than be buried alive in a tunnel. This is all in reference to the wonderful fear tactic of the simulation showing the viaduct coming down in an earthquake to prove their point. I hope this thing is never built because not only will it continue to bankrupt this state it was NOT the people’s vote and we know that.

As-if March 3, 2010 (5:41 pm)

I still don’t get it. I commented a while back that if they could retro-fit the West Seattle viaduct good enough to add new off ramps, why couldn’t they do it to the Alaska Way viaduct? Someone answered me that the ground under the Alaska Way viaduct wasn’t firm enough to support retro-fitting. So, let me get this straight. It won’t support retro-fitting, but it will support a bloody tunnel. Yeah, right.
Engineers can do what ever they put their mind and my money to. I still say that the view and the property value is what the city fathers are after. It is the same crew that went ahead and built the stadium even though the voters voted it down, and promised no cost over runs, and when the cost over ran they came to you and me to pay for it. Do you really think that they will build anything under budget?

As-if March 3, 2010 (6:17 pm)

Okay, so, solution.
Fix the bottle neck on I5 of 6 lanes into two, then reteo fit, or tear down the viaduct and rebuild it. You have to fix the traffic problem before you create another one. It could have been done by now and some of it paid for with the “study money” from the “Popular Seattle Monorail.” That was a real winner. And don’t tell me expanding I5 can’t be done. Two stadiums, a marble bus tunnel, and a third runway. Oh yeah, it can be done.
We should also continue building that light rail system that goes to the airport all over town, including West Seattle, and Northgate and Bellevue and basically all points in every direction. Never stop building it.

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