Alaskan Way Viaduct: Why those 3 old columns were saved

(Photo by Doug Branch)
While demolition continues, three weeks post-“Viadoom,” on the remaining section of no-longer-used south end of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, several West Seattleites have asked if we know the plans for those three columns left standing along the new stretch of 99. We finally got a moment to ask WSDOT, and Greg Phipps replied:

I had the same question that you had after taking some pictures of the columns last week. The answer is the three columns will be used as falsework to support construction of the Atlantic Street overpass. The columns and other falsework structures will hold up the concrete and rebar of the overpass until they can stand on their own. The pipe piles in the middle of the SR 99 construction bypass will be used for the same purpose. Below is our visualization with an arrow added to show roughly where the columns are. Construction on the overpass will begin next summer.

Current construction updates can be found here.

JanS November 20, 2011 (7:00 pm)

am I missing something? I don’t see an arrow :-\

WSB November 20, 2011 (7:29 pm)

The arrow seemed to get lost somewhere between the e-mail in which the graphic was contained, and the download. At any rate, it just points to a spot on the overpass, which you can clearly see in the graphic….