For the past couple of years the state has been considering only two options to fix the Alaskan Way Viaduct: an expensive rebuild, and Greg Nickel's insanely expensive tunnel. Both options would close the viaduct for years, forcing traffic onto surface streets or requiring temporary bypasses to be built.
What about repairing the viaduct rather than replacing it? Victor Gray of Port Townsend, a retired structural engineer, proposes just that, and the state Department of Transportation has agreed to study his plan:
Gray, along with engineer Neil Twelker, has proposed bracing the viaduct with steel beams. While Gray claims his plan is much cheaper than the $2.5 billion to $4 billion replacement cost, the fact it could be done without major viaduct closures gives the idea clout among business owners.Gray claims the viaduct could be repaired for $800 million.
We can only hope the plan will be given due consideration and not just dismissed. If it truly does offer a safe alternative to the other plans, it should be implemented. The extra money allocated for viaduct replacement should be used to fix SR 520 or be refunded to the people.
Posted by Andy MacDonald at May 17, 2006 09:36 AM | Email ThisAndy, what are you smoking, and can I have some? "... or be refunded to the people". Yeah, right! A lib government returning their money to the people.
Or should that be a lib government returning the people's money to the people?
Posted by: Fred on May 17, 2006 09:11 AMRecall this is the same state agency that mismanages our ferry system, and despite repeated audits that call for it, cannot give an accurate accounting of where that money goes.
Posted by: Shaun on May 17, 2006 10:10 AMOnce they tear it down they will not replace it with anything. This is the second biggest fraud being perpetrated on us (the first is Deanron/Terwilliger voting).
Looking at the plans I do not see how a tunnel is really constructible from an engineering point of view. I think the design consultants are honestly trying to find a solution but that equals a lot of money and time. They just do not know they are being played by the politicians. They were told to spin a golden tunnel from the muck of the waterfront. (BTW there are mutipliple tunnel options being studied by the designer).
(ask the monorail consultants...that Monorail board and director Joel Horn did exactly what it was supposed to do..tell the consultants to design this fancy system and then surprise it costs too much we need to shut it down and Metro bus drivers keep their jobs and Sound Transit can continue to build billions worth of no trains to no where-populist plans like monorails and retrofits are bad for unions and us smarty politicians)
So once the viaduct is torn down and the contractor starts trying to build the tunnel hits one snag King Nickels will then decree it just costs too much to finish! We'll put in a 4 lane road with 20 traffic lights the King then decrees. Traffic forever torpedoed through Seattle exactly the way a communist would want it!
Mr. Ceis and Mr. Nickels stop me when I am wrong.
One of the biggest frauds I have ever seen perpetrated on the public is hiring the same firm that found the retrofit unfeasible before, to study the issue again. This should be criminal if it is not. This firm has almost certainly built alliances that are in the interest of seeing a rebuild or tunnel and not a retrofit.
The only thing we have going for us is the Internet and the Monorail Debacle that is fresh in citizen's minds. Now that there is a way to get the word out besides the talking heads and complicit newspaper reporters, blogs combined with the multibillion dollar price tag just might be enough to wake up the largely ignorant public to the folly of the rebuild and tunnel plans.
But ... I highly doubt it. Seattle has chosen it's own fate. By electing fools like Nickels that will choke traffic for years in the CBD, Seattle deserves every bit of the suffering it will endure and then some.
Posted by: Jeff B. on May 17, 2006 11:20 AMIt would keep the Viaduct operating in the meantime. Downtown is already a mess so having metal plates cover the avenues shouldn't throw drivers and pedestrians too far off.
Anyone know where that idea went?
Posted by: Michael on May 17, 2006 12:44 PMThey are highly respected in the community.
And I was shocked to see that Twelker had plans prepared for the retrofit. No, I don't think the retrofit is going away.
And it won't go away if we can get ourselves some elected officials in Olympia with some guts.
Posted by: swatter on May 17, 2006 01:18 PMMassive traffic congestion resulting from either a new viaduct or a tunnel will dammage the quality of living and commerace in Seattle beyond repair.
Posted by: Paddy on May 17, 2006 03:48 PMSucher's arguments are irresistably logical as well as useful in stopping the liberal-democrat trainwreck of an insane tunnel project.
Posted by: Amused by liberals on May 18, 2006 11:10 AM