My predicition: The surface option will win out because it's the only thing anyone can agree on.

I dunno, I think the people of Seattle are batshit insane and Greg is the result of our collective stupidity.

Guys - haven't we learned that it's wrong for a Seattle paper's blog to discuss the viaduct vote (coming up March 13th with ballots being mailed in 5 days!)? Shouldn't we be discussing a NASCAR track a ferry ride away?! I thought Jake of 8-bit Joystick had taught us all our lesson!

Hey Willis, a diverse paper for diverse topics.

Yeah, I'm sick of Greg "I'm going to fight every second for a tunnel so I can spend all your Dimes and" Nickels. But, he's pinning his career on this, it'll fail, and it'll hurt him at the polls next.

At least the Mayor doesn't want a new giant freeway on the waterfront. THAT would be horrible and idiotic and not to mention f**king expensive. If people are so concerned about finances, why are they advocating a 2.3 mile mega-freeway project that cost billions (and probably billions more than we think?)

Yeah, he doesn't know when to quit when it comes to the tunnel, but I blame the State "leaders" for shoving a new mega-freeway down our throats.

I wish the Mayor would embrace surface/transit, but again, if he wanted to spend our money on a freeway, then I'd be more pissed.

him—good point about Nickels fighting every second for a tunnel.

Mark it on your calendar, folks: Valentine’s Day, 2007. The day the Nickels Death Spiral began.

I am guess I am alone on this, but I think we need to build more tunnels...lots of them. Since most major cities have tunnels for transport, I dont see why we can't. People refuse to build up the monorail, I am all for digging. Spend the billions. You know why? Cause Seattle can't build out like most cities. We are surrounded by water, so its not like we can build up more roads. We need to integrate the elevated transit and tunnels. Its the only way we can increase accesibility to the city.

In 50 years, when our population doubles, and we still have the same roads (or even a new viaduct, which would suck) that doesnt make it easy to get around the city, or to move cars/people/products. If we build tunnels, we can have transport routes, and hopefully some kind of subway system that would be super useful. People could pay to use the transport tunnel, like HOT lanes. Just my opinion.

If Nickels spent half the amount of time trying to come up with mass transit proposals than this fucking tunnel, we'd have a first class city.

Nickels, you make me ashamed to live in West Seattle and I look forward to kicking your ass out of office.

All Nickels had to do was change one requirement on behalf of the city.

Instead of the requirement to maintain vehicular capacity (cars per hour) he could have lobbied for a requirement to maintain commuter capacity (people per hour).

A big reason why we've ended up in such as stupid place is the artificial demand to maintain car carrying capacity through a dense urban area.

Right, surface now! - let's remove I-5 and reconnect the east and west - capital hill with eastlake - roosevelt with greenlake (well some is elevated there so the connection isn't as bad) N.S.C.C. with Northgate - and shut down that express lane now - I mean how many cars use that a day? And who cares about them anyway they all come from out of town -

And the original poster wants I-5 fixed from Seattle to the Airport - tear down the viaduct but make I-5 work for me - great.

Take that freeway down! We lived without it - keep the viaduct and remove the freeway and 520 for that matter!

@1 - you are correct. Oh, and I still have a Seafirst cover for my BofA checkbook ...

@5 and @7 - step off the drugs

@8 - how right you are - we need to start building LOTS of REAL TRANSIT - not just one type, but ALL OF THEM - light rail, monorail, streetcars, bus, BRT (on the Eastside), and do it SOONEST!

@9 - nah, it's all about the politics - if the City had pushed for Surface Plus Transit from the getgo, we'd have had a chance for that option. But instead the greed of the developers and their comrades with pockets filled with donations won.

No one drives on that road, it's too crowded.

C'mon # 10 is there any evidence that the AWV corridor is as neccesary as I-5 or 520?

Didn't a study show that people would avoid any new viaduct or tunnel that had a toll? If the typical user of the current viaduct will figure out some other plan after being asked to pay a buck or two...

Compare that to I-5, I-90 or 520. Who in their right mind would drive all the way around the lake to avoid paying a toll? Who would wander on all the surface streets it would take to avoid a toll on I-5?

Another hint that the AWV isn't critical: regardless of what we end up doing, it will be gone for years and years during construction. This isn't some weekend shutdown. The whole region will change and adjust the second the monstrosity is shut down for teardown and rebuild. We're going to lose the viaduct no matter what. Why not just make it permanently gone, and figure out a more sensible solution to moving people around? Not every commuter must or should drive or take a bus. There are infinitely better ways to spend nearly $3 billion.

I'm for repair not rebuild but I do consider the users of 99 and the viaduct as counting. A friend worked in Edmonds and lived in Seattle. She has since quit and i wished people wouldn't live so far from work - like on Vashon and work in Redmond - or Seattle and work in Bellevue but they do - anyway many a day I-5 was so crowded she would go to 99 if it was crowded she would go to 15th NW - these are real people and they use 99. If 99 is essentially closed I-5 will take more of the load and become even more of a parking lot.

The state has a responsibility to the entire state not just Belltown residents and downtown workers or for that matter tourists or sport franchises.

Build the surface alternatives and the transit and then shut down the viaduct.

As for tolling it will be more than a buck or two and they said people would avoid it by moving to I-5 causing 12 hour peak traffic - and putting the traffic on downtown streets will not create a pleasant ambiance - 2nd and 4th as complete urban highways - ever notice the lack of ambiance on those streets?

Anyway my point was that I-5 does much more damage to the city - spend the billions building lids that reconnect neighborhoods and even give us "land" for housing. The way the tear down crowd talks you'd think there is no waterfront without it when in fact it is the only stretch with it.

I wonder what percentage of the "just get rid of it crowd" actually use the viaduct on a regular basis.

Repair and prepare - let people change jobs and where they live - let businesses know the change is coming - take the leftover .5B - 1B and do surface and transit - or sound proof the express lanes and other stretches of I-5. And no new viaducts across Union and Portage Bays.

maybe we could put the NASCAR track ON the waterfront and solve all our problems!!

@15,

Now that's the kind of problem solving and initiative we need in this town!

Actually, one of my colleagues bikes from Kirkland to Seattle probably 4-5 times a week (with a bus trip across the 520 bridge). So living far away doesn't have to be unhealthy or bad for the enviro.

Maybe we should dig a hole, call it a tunnel, and bury the NASCAR supporters in it?

What about a viaduct on top of a tunnel to build capacity for the future.

@13: Golob, you're wrong. The viaduct is critical, and will be more so in the future with an additional million or so people in the area.

Nickels is no Richard Daley. That being said, I'm equally pissed at our federal legislators- particularly the bopsie twins Murray and Cantwell. Maria has the political skills of a gnat, and Murray being the number 4 position with the Senate is as useless as tits on a boar hog. Murray's comments "don't expect any federal help" mean that either she doesn't give a shit about Washington state, doesn't have the brains or staff to come up with new ideas to engage in the transportation debate, or has been in DC too long now to even give a damn what happens here. In any case, she's first on my list to have her dumb ass thrown out. IF she decides to run again I'm half tempted to vote for a Republican. Even someone like Mike!

The key to helping the people who really do use 99 as a through route is to get everyone who doesn't use it as a through route to use transit or other roads. Even many of the through-traffic could use transit if they aren't carrying freight and both destinations are near a future rail line. A boulevard would have enough capacity to move everyone else without creating a bottleneck.

Repair the viaduct with the understanding that it's temporary, and then start preparing for its removal.

#19, pork ain't what it used to be. There simply isn't as much federal money available for transportation as there used to be, relative to the costs of projects.

This is the result of conservative ideology that's opposed to investments in infrastructure, massive deficits that affect our ability to invest, ill-advised tax cuts, and the damned war. It makes no sense to blame this on representatives who have mostly been on the right side of these issues all along. If we want more money for transportation from the feds, we need to spend less money on the DOD and homeland security theater that doesn't make us safer and stop giving tax breaks to every millionaire that moves.

But that's a whole other discussion. Even if this starts to change, there's not going to be sufficient money from the feds for a long time. We're on our own.

#17: I'll get off the drugs (har har) if you quit smokin'. Building a brand new, larger freeway through downtown Seattle is expensive and crazy and only feeds the business/labor/contractor industrial complex. WSDOT wants a mega-project, that's why they've positioned this as an "safe" "affordable" (HA HA HA!!!!!) alternative. Bureaucracies are empire-builders and want more money and resources their way, hence the elevated alternative that has magically risen as the "only" option for moving forward. My eye.

#19: With all that name-calling, foaming at the mouth, lack of knowledge, and infinite charm, I'm shocked that you haven't been more effective in getting the result you want.

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