As Dominic reported earlier, a new Elway Poll suggests that after ten years of public debate and private wrangling, a majority of Seattle voters support none of the proposals to replace the crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct, with 38 percent of respondents saying they would vote for a new or retrofitted viaduct, 35 percent that they would vote for a deep bore tunnel, and a piddling 21 percent coming out in favor of the Stranger-fetished surface/transit option.

So much for being the voice of your generation, Dom.

Elway’s take is that most people just don’t believe that surface/transit can handle the traffic volume, while Dom seems convinced that voters are simply misinformed. Surface/transit “performs better on virtually all metrics,” Dom argues, making the classic liberal mistake of presuming that having the facts on your side represents any sort of political advantage. But Dom soothes himself further by dismissing voter sentiment entirely:

If the tunnel gets shot down, I think we may end up with a surface alternative as our only realistic option. As Dan Bertolet lays out beautifully on Slog today, if the tunnel is rejected, we won’t get a viaduct.

And I agree. Both Dan and Dom are right in asserting that the likelihood of the state shoving a viaduct rebuild down our waterfront is slim to nil. If we can block a tunnel, we can certainly block a rebuild. That’s what we’re good at here in Seattle: blocking things.

But Dom is naive if he thinks that an anti-tunnel vote virtually assures state funding for the surface option, for there is an additional alternative that both he and Dan surprisingly ignore… the option to do absolutely nothing. After all, in the absence of consensus, nothing has been the overwhelming favorite of nearly every survey on the subject, and it’s not inconceivable that nothing is exactly what Seattle might get.

For if the state is convinced that a surface option would do little to handle thru-traffic on Highway 99, why spend any money at all? Why not just take down the handful of segments most at risk of toppling onto the waterfront and leave the rest of the structure roped off, but standing, as a fitting tribute to our city’s pathologically process-driven public-policy paralysis? We could dub it “The Seattle Way Viaduct” in that honor.

Sound unlikely? No more so than the likelihood of non-Seattle legislators willingly shoveling a couple billion dollars in our direction so that we can pursue our anti-car/anti-American agenda. Honestly… if the choice was between caving to Seattle liberals or digging a big ditch somewhere in Ferry County, dumping the money in there, soaking it in kerosene, lighting it afire and then bulldozing over the ashes, you don’t think there would be a helluva a lot of legislators voting for the latter? Of course there would. They fucking hate us! And considering the strained relations between City Hall and our legislative delegation, I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple Seattle legislators voted for the Ferry County Bonfire Option too.

I don’t disagree that the deep bore tunnel provides a crappy return on investment while representing a backwards-thinking approach toward transportation planning. But it’s been a decade since the Nisqually quake marked the Viaduct for demolition, and we’ve done absolutely nothing to replace it. And if you don’t think we could leave it standing for another decade or two, in use or not, then you don’t know the Seattle way.

65 replies on “The Seattle Way Viaduct”

  2. We want objective people with numbers, not Critical Mass assholes with sticks up their asses about cars.

    My sentiments exactly! I think those who hate cars are a combination of barely employed (if that) 20-somethings who can’t afford a car, and old nerds on recumbent bicycles. Someone needs to get their heads out of their asses and pay attention to their people who work, pay taxes, and keep this city on the map. It’s not a video game, children.

  4. The viaduct is coming down next year. Just not the entire structure. The project is not going to happen it’s already happening. If Seattle wants to pursue a surface/transit they can. They can do whatever they want with their streets, however the state is going to bore a tunnel.

    Seattle does not run the state. Seattle area Legislators do not run the Legislature. Seattle is not paying for the viaduct replacement yet they arrogantly are demanding a vote that excludes King County voters and others affected in the region. Seattle wants to foist their traffic woes onto the rest of the region without any plan to address it.

  5. …a majority of Seattle voters support none of the proposals to replace the crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct…

    That’s some seriously crappy writing.

  6. Exactly correct, Goldy! I’m not really thrilled with the tunnel, but I support it, because it’s doing SOMETHING. This city is filled with negative folks who can find lots of reasons to not do things, but never provide any constructive options. If all the effort that has gone into anti-tunnel efforts had gone towards investigating a better alternative, we might have another alternative; as it is, there’s just a concerted effort to keep anything from happening.

    “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” Very appropriate in this situation.

  8. @64, that is not necessarily true. While the hybrid car can transfer some of its energy to potential energy for later use, not all is transferred. There will be energy loss to the atmosphere as the brakes of the car cool. It also takes additional energy to start a car from a dead stop than to keep it moving (momentum).

    A hybrid car still uses gasoline, just less of it. (There is a possible exception for a plug-in hybrid that is operated solely within the range of its batteries.)

    So, you don’t get the same results! SCIENCE!

  9. Let’s also not forget, these signatures were collected by people being PAID to collect signatures. I’ve done the signature collecting thing and I can tell you, it does make a difference. People getting paid can stand around collecting all day every day- for example, you could have seen one anti-tunnel signature collector for this standing around our local grocery at any hour of the day, every day of the week. People not getting paid have to take time off of work to collect signatures. So not really all that amazing that so many signatures were collected this month.

    And just for the record, I am a general tunnel supporter, but at this point I say, just tear it down or rope it off and leave it unused for a while. Have the state put that money into saving basic health and our higher educational system. We’ll get a higher return out of keeping those programs alive than we ever would making a tunnel OR fancy waterfront surface streets.

  10. If Mr X comprehends my posts, he can’t honestly resort to their condemnation with, “OK, now you’ve gone and proved that you know jack about engineering,” followed with, “there is no way an overpass at Broad Street can be built to an acceptable grade for rail,” but immediately disproves that assertion with, “unless you’re talking about using Alaskan Way for a block.”

    Of course, the bridge proposal begins on Alaskan Way one block south of Broad at Clay Street. Mr X’s, “Please, do prove me wrong with something that you didn’t draw on a napkin,” indicates that he is an a**hole with sh*t for brains.

  11. In recent polls of online cats, 100 percent supported tearing down the existing Danger-prone Viaduct as a necessary precondition for:

    a. Surface plus Transit;
    b. Viaduct rebuild (modern soundproofing and earthquake standards);
    c. Cut and cover surface “tunnel”.

    Therefore, there is 100 percent agreement about what Seattle needs to do.

    Amongst online cats.

  13. For chrissake. There’s an easy way to settle the debate about whether or not existing surface streets can handle the traffic.

    Close the fucking thing. For a month. See what happens.

  14. @71. Closing I-99 for one month won’t cause every single industrial business in South Seattle to move to Auburn, Centralia or Clark County. But closing it permanently will.

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