- Gregoire: “Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ‘er built”
State highway officials named the presumptive team to construct a deep-bore tunnel today, Seattle Tunneling Partners (STP), which submitted the most expensive bid but nearly doubled its competitor in technical credits. The proposal, coming in a hair under the state’s $1.09 billion limit, would result in a wider tunnel than the state previously expected to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Already proposed as widest deep-bore tunnel ever constructed at 56 feet in diameter, STP’s design merited more technical credits, first, because it added two additional feet to shoulders in the tunnel roadway. That would widen the tunnel’s shell to “approaching 58 feet,” Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project director Ron Paananen said. The wider shoulders address some concerns that there wasn’t enough room for a car to pull over inside the tunnel.
But a wider tunnel may increase risk. A consultant hired by the city this summer, Thom Neff, cautioned that coming in on budget was “unlikely” because the width was unprecedented at 56 feet in diameter. Another set of city consultants predicted the project has a 40 percent chance of running over budget.
Governor Chris Gregoire cheered the bids and as evidence that the tunnel would be produced without cost overruns, which a state law says will be collected from Seattle property owners. “We are going to stay by our commitment,” she said. “We are going to be on time. We are going to be on budget.”
Meanwhile to its credit, STP’s proposal would narrow the roadway at the southern portal by two or three lanes (previous designs show it as wide as 14 lanes) and submerge the tunnel further south (which could allow technical challenges to be solved before the boring machine passes underneath unstable buildings and soil in Pioneer Square to the north). Lastly, STP said it could finish the project three months earlier.
More after the jump.
Details on the design proposals cannot yet be released, Paananen said. Both teams are entitled to a nine-day period to challenge the technical ratings. The losing team, Seattle Tunneling Group, is expected by many people to challenge the final score.
Gregoire also gave a nod to a state study that shows the tunnel will accommodate about one-third of the existing viaduct traffic, while the rest would choke downtown streets and I-5. That traffic would be worse without the tunnel, she argues, saying, “We will move cars through the tunnel and we will not displace them.”
Seattle Tunnel Partners is a joint venture of Dragados USA and Tutor Perini Corp, including Frank Coluccio Construction, Mowat Construction, HNTB Corp. and Intecsa. Seattle Tunneling Partners earned 71,577,000 technical points and a bid of $1,089,702,000. In contrast, Seattle Tunneling Group won only 38,152,000 points and submitted a bid of $1,088,202,000.
Nice death trap.
Well, with a name like Seattle Tunneling Partners, it just makes sense.
“Gregoire also gave a nod to a state study that shows the tunnel will accommodate about one-third of the existing viaduct traffic, while the rest would choke downtown streets and I-5. That treffic would be worse without the tunnel, she argues, saying, “We will move cars through the tunnel and we will not displace them.””
This shows the idiocy of all or nothing tunnel advocation. We still need a surface option tunnel or not. Dismissing it as unfeasible, or insufficient just comes down to illogical rhetoric. No matter what, there needs to be a surface solution. Asking if we should start by trying it, and then evaluate if the tunnel will provide the ROI needed isn’t obstructionist, its the sensible thing to do when talking about taking out a multi-billion dollar loan.
I guess the alternative is to ignore the state, accuse them of lying and pray that the tunnel becomes so disasterous that it bankrupts the city.
Am I correct in assuming thats what anti-tunnel supporters want?
But, you’re assuming this is about sensible plans, meanie.
It isn’t.
It’s about ego and the Billionaires wanting to force the middle class to pay for their vanity projects.
The problem isn’t the billionaires, they are always pretty transparent about what they want. Its the street level uninformed voters in the city and suburbs who assume cause it seems fancy its a good idea.
We need to start accepting that some huge portion of the population is a silent passive aggressive John Balio and act accordingly.
@5, @6, I hope you guys can put your heads together on this. Your city needs you.
I find it hilarious that the people beating the drum about reduced capacity of the tunnel are the same people who wanted a surface option to start with coupled with some of the people who favor switching people to public transport through inconvenience and road diets. The same people who argue that by dedicating a big portion of 520 to transit it will force people not to drive. If they are all correct, the surface streets could handle the entire traffic volume but anybody inconvenienced (ie West Seattle to Downtown commuters) will be pushed to taking transit. I have a lot more respect for anyone who says they just don’t like a tunnel than this desperate, jump on the latest sound-byte bs.
@5: Which of the region’s 6 billionaires do you believe gives a shit about the tunnel?
special session on Saturday morning.
that’s when you’ll find out.
you’re new to this, right?
@9 Shhhhhhhhh! Will is proud of the clever name he came up with despite it making not a lick of sense.
@8 – There’s no contradiction there. Proponents of transit are pointing out a fatal flaw in a hugely expensive project they don’t agree with.
@9 – probably exactly one of them, but barely at all. So, maybe more like .25 of them?
Hopefully they’ll add a bike lane.
@13 lol – can’t even put your bike on the bus, cause the Deeply Boring Tunnel won’t be having any transit.
Get used to riding in limos folks – and 4-5 minutes SLOWER than the CURRENT VIADUCT, if you’re in the Tunnel and 10-20 minutes SLOWER if you’re anywhere in Downtown Seattle, cause it’s not going to handle the 40 to 50 percent of trips the current SR-99 Viaduct does that start or end in Downtown Seattle.
Got Debt?
@14, you shit catch-phrases, don’t you?
@4: No, you’re a moron.
@9 –
Mainly billionaire Paul Allen, for whom the tunnel project throws in a free (at public expense, that is) lidding and makeover of Avenue Avenue on the non-waterfront stretch where Allen’s company owns virtually all the private property on both sides of the SR-99 corridor.
@17, Avenue Avenue, the street so nice they named it twice.
Probably not the best time for me to be reading “Boneshaker” eh?
Actually, this is exactly the right time to read Boneshaker.
@14: Hmm, I must have missed the paragraph in the EIS that described the prohibition of buses in the tunnel. Oh–maybe because it isn’t there, that in fact, buses can run in the tunnel, and since we already have a transit tunnel and a freight/commuter tunnel through downtown Seattle, we might not need a third?
Awesome, the wider the better. Make that bitch look like a carport rather than a garage – very Seattle.
@17: What the fuck are you talking about? Not even Seattle is stupid enough to call one of their avenues “Avenue”.
In point of fact, neither Paul Allen nor Vulcan have taken any position, monetary or otherwise, on the tunnel.
@18 –
Forgive my typo. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if Aurora Avenue gets a new name in a few years after the city/state gives naming rights to Allen and he sells them to the highest bidder.
@26: Vulcan gave $5000 to anti-Mallahan PACs. Other than that, the only contribution from Vulcan was an executive who privately gave $150 to the McGinn campaign.
Vulcan’s interest is in Mercer, not the waterfront. Whatever solution goes forward – tunnel, rebuild, or surface – Vulcan will be involved to make sure it doesn’t fuck up South Lake Union.
@17 “Allen’s company owns virtually all the private property on both sides of the SR-99 corridor”
Total and complete BS. You might be able to make it 30% if you include Gates holdings but I doubt even that without some creative new-math.
Your comments make it clear you hate Paul Allen but, if you think about it, tunnel overruns that supposedly (not legally) would fall on the property owners who benefit from the tunnel would, according to your false claim, fall primarily on Paul Allen and we should all rejoice and be happy.
This thread is threatening to take even SLOG to a new low.
Wow. You guys are so screwed.
I have no idea how this benefits Seattle homeowner more than it benefits people living in adjacent communities. Yet you’ll pay for it in Seattle.
And you will pay. I don’t need a study to say with confidence that this build has a 100% chance of going over budget and a 40% chance of even being finished on time.
My sympathies, Seattle.
@15 did you notice that half of the ones the MSM picked up and are using are from me on this?
Envy ill becomes you.
Now, go have brunch with your friends at the “winning bid” team from Stuff it, Tax Payers (STP) and make sure they pick up the check this time.
@20 for the insightful Steampunk win.