Mmmmm, cake. I vote YES on the Transit and Boulevard Option (TABO). And I sure loves me some bolded type!

This GW BUSH AMERICA. We I can loose weight and eat a peice of cake everyday. HOW? Exercise... HA!!

As soon as I schedule an appt with a personal trainer, but you see with my work schedule and the life and all, and I need to do exercise right, that is why I can't just GO to the gym today, I need that trainer and... say, what was that REALLY LOUD CRASH RIGHT NOW IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE?!?!?!?!?!?

At this rate, the viaduct will fall down the next time a strong gust of wind blows off the water... then there will be consensus that it was actually going to fall down before it was torn down...

But don't worry. History shows us that YES, Mayor Nero did live past the ruin and his fine city rose again.

It's true. I saw the ruins of Nero's City for myself.

"the state would be remiss not to"........

Oh. Josh. You have spend too much time in the bright sun the past few days.

The STATE OF WASHINGTON would love to tell Seattle to go to hell.

Gregoire will do it in a major policy press conf. beamed to all the media statewide. They will cheer in Pasco, Walla Walla and Bellingham. Her polling will go up 4 points.

Gosh, Josh - feel good sufff put out for the gullible public by Peter, Nick and other is jaberwocky Seattle overstuffed bong blather.

The state has ALL the aces. All the aces -- and the money, and the design and eminent domaine. No pissy blackmail about permits or other stuff. Rob McKenna the very asture and bright newly minted R attorney general would love to go to the mat with the huffing and pufffing Seattle city council. And beat their asses into the ground.

More points for his eventual run for GOV.

Yes, this is Strange, the non options becomes a moral crusade for the true believers, which idea, was never on the table of real politics and policy.

How handy. All the no build people can feel so kicked around when they loose, which is where they are headed.

Gosh, Josh. Step back for a minute and enter the big bad real world - the DOT will not be jerked around by Seattle, Gregoire and the legislature likewise, or its often foggy council members.

you know, Josh, they're right - most of WA wants to tell us to go to H311 ...

especially since they've already agreed to pay for the entire Viaduct Replacement as it is.

We need to move on.

The State won't give us $2 billion for the nobuild option - but they'll give us enough to rebuild the seawall and tear the thing down - otherwise they'd be hypocrites.

Isn't that enough? How much does no rebuild cost?

Replacing the state highway with a city boulevard should cost less than what the tunnel option costs over the State commitment.

ok, then here's a better argument - we can't choose the no-freeway option because it's one of the stupidest ideas offered up in recent memory.

destroying a freeway without offering viable alternatives is bordering on the insane. it won't work. this city is completely lacking in high-speed rapid transit. turning I5 into a parking lot out of spite is a poor outcome to be touting as good public policy.

The teardown boosters don't know or care about transportation efficiency or even pedestrian convenience.
If they did, they'd have at least suggested the possibility of building a smaller and pedestrian-friendly viaduct that would serve as an outdoor plaza and observation deck for walkers or bicycle riders along the central waterfront, and could include pedestrian connections at level with 1st Avenue not unlike like the heavily used elevated walkway that now connects the ferry terminal and 1st Avenue at Madison St.

"remiss and out-of-line if they didn’t tweak the authorizing legislation to meet the local will."

GOLLY, that's how things get done!!! Why didn't the Mayor think of that!!! We'll just tell the Legislature what we think is best for US!!! and then they'll fund it. YES I SEE NOW.
Put down the pipe Josh.

This really is a dumb post - half of the Seattle delegation (you know, the ones whose constituents USE the AWV) would laugh out loud at this suggestion, let alone what some Republican from Mabton or Spokane is going to say.

More likely scenario - they'll just shift the money over to 520 if Seattle digs its heels in and refuses to replace the AWV's capacity.

News flash - State Law trumps local jurisdictions (ask Snohomish County about how King County was able to impose the Brightwater project there).

No, they won't shift the money. In a more normal dogfight they might, but the kicker is liabiity.

Because it is such a hazard and the state continues to let it operate, it goes down and takes 500 people with it, the living will sue for tens of billions and maybe collect.

The state is doing a bet they can get it down and replaced before the big one, but they will not leave it standing, or do the more streel cheap support thing either. The rebuild deign is very strong, against the quake of I think, 500 years.

The footings will excavated to a very stable compressed sub layer of material, created by glacier weight of 12,000 years ago.

I still like the tunnel, but another billion seems out of reach --- but then, this is a rich state and rich little city.

The nust rebild now crises of the state is good attorneys have told them the are sitting on a time bomb of major liabitlity consequence.

I like the idea of a tear-it-down option, but only if it is accompanied by a serious investment in real public mass transit to west Seattle. Either light rail or monorail, not buses.

Jake,

WSDOT hasn't closed the Viaduct for a reason - a few sections of the roadway have settled since the Nisqually earthquake, but most of the structure is not in danger of collapse in a typical NW seismic event (it probably would not be usable after, though).

If voters had repealed the gas tax, WSDOT would suddenly have decided the structure doesn't have to be able to weather a 2500 year event, and we'd be looking at a basic earthquake retrofit that would anticipate a mere 500 year quake and address the liability concerns you raise.

The State has included a no-action scenario in the Alaskan Way Viaduct EIS, but have not made it clear what kind of seismic retrofit that would entail.

Josh, The cake analogy is really stupid and very simplistic. Transportation does not get built here because we have a very convoluted tax structure and governance structure which people don't understand. You can't just move money around willy-nilly from one funding source to another, some of these sources based on public votes which stipulate how you can and cannot use the money. The Moonies are being irresponsible on this one.

The Sierra Club Transportation Committee was meeting on this very issue last night (Tuesday).