Not far from where the Kingdome demolition drew a massive crowd 11 years ago, the start of Alaskan Way Viaduct demolition drew a much-smaller — albeit high-powered — crowd tonight. Our video from about an hour ago shows the first bites coming out of the northbound onramp from 1st Avenue South, which was part of the Viaduct mainline when built in 1953, as we were reminded by the viaduct south-end-replacement project’s leader, West Seattleite Matt Preedy (seen below to the right of Ron Paananen, who leads the entire Viaduct project):

Also watching from 1st Avenue South by Qwest Field, along with us and the citywide media – City Councilmembers Sally Bagshaw, Tim Burgess, Richard Conlin, Jean Godden, and Tom Rasmussen, as well as Port Commissioner Rob Holland. (Apologies to any dignitaries we missed.) Preedy tells us that if all goes well, it will only take till tomorrow morning to bring down the entire ramp; then a new ramp will be finished and connected, feeding traffic onto The Viaduct northbound from Royal Brougham, by April 1st, preparing for a longer detour while south-end-replacement work proceeds. (More info-links in our preview from earlier today.)

SATURDAY UPDATE: Looks like all went as planned, according to the state’s update. And Preedy got a souvenir:

(Photo courtesy Fiona Preedy)
The background on the ramp work is here.