Comments on Repairing It to Death

That would be nice, but -sadly - it would most likely just kill a bunch of homeless people.

We could do a lot to help the Viaduct by replacing the seawall - if the Army Corps of Engineers ever get around to starting work. Their web site apparently hasn't been updated since 2006.

Thank you Dan.

Throwing good money after bad, truly.

One of those "The emperor has no clothes" moments.

The irony isn't so satisfying when it's public money or putting people's lives at risk

The article says the exact opposite of what Dan got out of it. The viaduct is only settling in one small place, because it's built on piles that go to bedrock. That one place is being shored up, which is causing another 1/8 inch subsidence, which will stop when they leave. It's not collapsing by any conceivable stretch of the imagination.

shouldn't straight parents be under there too?

“settling,” of course, is the polite way of saying, “slow-motion collapse.”

Got a cite for that? Or maybe you're a structural engineer, now? It settled "up to 1/8 of an inch". Wow. Collapse is imminent!

All buildings "settle". Especially those built over water.

They can't close it without gridlocking all of West Seattle.

And no, there are not enough buses to offset the loss.

And preemptively STFU about how this would've have happened if we had built the Green Line. No.

@7,

...and gridlocking downtown (where exactly do they think those buses would run? That's right - on already gridlocked streets).

Heaven forbid reality should intrude on Dan and ECB's faith-based transportation planning.

@6: i remember SDOT/WSDOT releasing a maximum amount that section could settle before it was all over. it WAS settling about 1/2"/year. i think that additional 1/8" brought it within 1" of the max.

too bad.

and the correct answer is: when it collapses, it will kill TOURISTS, including many small children.

@9,

Not correct - they said if it had subsided 6" they would have to do more expensive repairs than the project currently underway. There was no indication that settlement beyond that amount was going to result in closure.

Don't worry.

More people than that will die when Rainier goes. Just counting the surviving burn victims from the stochastic mud flows.

Not joking - it's the truth.

Relax about the Viaduct - it's small potatoes.

oh, and @7 - that's why we need to literally DOUBLE all transit with 4 blocks of the Viaduct ... now.

@6: Concrete isn't as flexible as you think: the fact that the settling is focused in one place lends itself to the likelihood that some time in the future, we'll see just how inflexible this structure can be.

In fact, concrete is one of the few materials on earth that we as humans use with regularity that can experience what can be considered a "catastrophic" failure focused entirely on its presence.