Council Agrees to Study Third Viaduct Option
The city council agreed today to spend $15,000 to study the “surface/transit” option for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct. According to the press release, the $15,000 will pay for a consultant who will “analyze whether the capacity of the street grid and a reconfiguration with the deployment of additional transit services could sustain mobility given the loss of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.” Translation: Can we replace the viaduct’s capacity with transit and improvements to I-5 and the street grid? The People’s Waterfront Coalition, which has been pushing the council to consider its proposal for highway-free waterfront for more than two years, says yes.
Then the city better be ready to pay for this itself and send the state's money back...no way will this sit right with voters around the state or their lawmakers, who were sold on raising taxes to pay for replacing infrastructure vital to the state's economy.
A good idea for the city, but won't work the way people are playing it out.